Hatred
by Dakari-King Mykan
Summary: A KARI PUNISHMENT FIC: Fed up with always having his feelings ignored and being morbidly disrespected, Davis really loses his cool and turns on all his friends, his family, especially TK and his family, and anyone else who dares to face him, and what's worse a new discovery has been made about Digimon that may rewrite the rulings of levels and strength. RATED M for Violent scenes
1. Hateful Smacks

**_Author's notes:_**

**_Let's all be grownups here, this is just a fanfic, and I'm not trying to get on people's nerves or anything, but I've wanted to do this kind of a fic for a while now. To let off some much needed steam_**

**_So, don't be giving me any guff about OOC or junk!_**

**CHAPTER ONE**

The gang were all in high school now, except for Cody who was still in Elementary school.

Yolei was in her second year at High School and she and Ken had been dating for a whole year. Ken was had practically regained half of his lost genius IQ, but he was still pretty much a bit of a depressed downer at times, but being with his friends and Yolei really helped him keep his spirits high.

TK was on the high school basketball team, and helped his team get into the junior playoffs, and Kari was a member of the student-body council, and in charge of photography for the yearbooks and organizing school events.

Davis was on the high school soccer team, and he still wore the goggles Tai had given him. His grades were improving somewhat, since he usually wasn't the homework and school kinds of guy. The only times school was cool to him was when it was canceled.

However, things had not been going too well for him lately. Even after when Maylo-Myotismon was defeated, and the Digital World was soon restored, there would always be some manner of business for the gang to attend to. Davis was starting to feel that his friends didn't respect him as a leader.

Very often they would not be interested in his ideas to include all-out attacks, busting through the front doors, and if necessary, destroy the evil attacking Digimon to prevent them from achieving their monstrous goals which would bring disaster to others, even though it was fully understood that they would just be reconfigured and reborn again, as long as they didn't completely destroy the data, in which case the Digimon would die and not return; but the others were not keen on Davis' ideas, and would discuss their own strategies, leaving Davis totally in the dark.

Usually these ideas backfired and the gang would, as usual prefer to run and regroup instead of stay and fight like Davis and Veemon did, and even after Davis and Veemon always would succeed, they were often thanked by other Digimon whom they saved, but the others were not quite as thankful and would often give them lectures and scolding of always taking such risks. To which he was always reply "If I hadn't, everyone would have been killed. Is that what you want?" but the others were still not as sympathetic.

Even in real life, things were not going all that smooth. He was struggling to try and keep up with high school and whole new classes, not to mention soccer practice, and even his new job as a paper-boy he got to earn money for college. All this running and around and all this work to keep track of, he was often very late, and would get detention in school, which was becoming very frequent with him.

But the worst part was Kari! He still had feelings for her, and tried to ask her out several times while he had the chance, only for she refuse saying that she just didn't think she was ready for dating. He would ask her again, and again, only to be given the same answers each time.

Then finally one day, he wasn't willing to take no for an answer and was going to try to convince Kari to give him one chance. That was all he wanted just one chance, only for him to not only be shot down again, but for Kari to inform him that she and TK started dating weeks before he came to her that time. Kari also openly admitted that even if she hadn't dated TK "Davis… you're my friend but, well… I just don't have those kinds of feelings for you. I'm sorry."

Davis then looked at her grimly and simply said "Forget it." and he turned to walk down the hallway to class. The others passed by him.

"Hi, Davis…" Yolei would say.

"What's up, Davis." Ken would say, but his best friend just turn and said "Yeah right." To which they figured "He's found out." They knew about Kari and TK, and didn't tell him not knowing what to say, and when he out about that as well, he really took it personally.

One day, while most of them were meeting at a coffee and doughnut shop in town, as was one of their hangouts outside of school. TK and Kari weren't with them. Davis arrived but when the others tried to talk to him he would respond simply by saying "Yes" or "No" or just plain not be interested.

Even in the school cafeteria!

Davis could see Kari and TK sitting privately at a table a few seats down from them. It really annoyed him the way they looked together, talking and laughing, and even casually feeding each other food. The high school dream team, that's what some called them. _"He should feel so lucky." _He complained in his mind _"That should be Me with her. I've known her since Kindergarten; you only met her because of the Digital World."_

Even his friends couldn't help but talk about them in his presence. "TK and Kari are sure cute aren't they?" Yolei said, and finally, Davis starting going far with his behavior. Kari invited him to her15th birthday party, but knowing TK would be there and obviously people would talk about how cute they were. He rudely snatched the invitation and sneered coldly but calmly "Sorry, I've got other plans." and he would leave, but Kari saw him throw the invitation into the trash.

"Fine, be that way." she muttered to herself. It wasn't like she was trying to hurt him, but she really was starting to get angry with him the way he was always in such a miserable mood and always looking at her like she was some kind of virus.

Even in Literature class, Davis sat alone behind Kari and TK who usually sat together at the same desk-table. They were casually talking about their dates and fun times and plans for after school. TK even gave Kari a huge smooch on the cheek.

Davis really didn't like this a bit. It was worse than all the times Kari flirted with TK for the sole purpose to make him jealous. "TK…?" Davis said "Can you proofread my report for me? I don't think I spelled everything right."

He handed his paper to TK and read the first and only sentence Davis had written:

_"Do that in front of me again… AND I'LL SMASH YOU TO PIECES!"_

TK and Kari both slowly turned to gaze at Davis and her glared at them with straight and cold eyes. "Did I do it right?"

Rather than make a big scene and stoop to Davis' level, TK calmly handed him the paper back saying "Yeah, it looks good." The second Davis took the paper back and went back to his book, Kari and TK turned round and TK whispered "What a jerk!"

"Let it go." Kari whispered back "If he wants to be a whiny dick, let him. Just don't let it bother you." But actually she was getting fed up to teeth with Davis she was finding it hard not to come right out and really give him a piece of her mind.

…

Then, one day, things were about to get way heated up! The gang had gone to the Digital world and met up with the Digimon, as they were asked to help clean up a mess around the Primary Village that was caused by a hurricane. None of the tiny Digimon was hurt for they had all been in shelters during the time, but some of the buildings had crumpled, and trees had fallen over, and even the new dam by the river was cracking.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Davis said "Let's get busy."

"Yeah, I'm with you, Davish." said Veemon, but that's when they noticed they were both standing on their own and the others had already set off without them, not listening to a word he said, as usually. "Ugh!" Davis growled "I can't take this…!"

Kari and TK, along with Angemon and Angewomon were clearing the fallen trees out of the way and plant new saplings to become new trees.

Still, they got work. Yolei and Ken helped fix up with the broken buildings along with Aquliamon and Stingmon, and Cody got what he deemed was the best job; he and Armdillamon were playing with all the tiny Digimon and keeping them busy while the others worked. He enjoyed teaching them about kendo, and how to achieve inner peace from all he had learned from his grandfather, but best of all… getting to share prune juice from juice boxes he brought for them all.

This left Davis and Veemon to work on the dam, alone, patching up the cracks and replacing loose stones. They had just placed the last stone and Veemon sighed as he wiped his brow. "There, that should keep it good and strong, huh Davish? Davish…?"

Davis hardly took notice of him and kept on gazing over at Kari and TK working so well together. Veemon sighed softly; still unable to believe Davis still hadn't patched things up with the others. "Davish, you can't shtay mad at them forever."

"What do you mean?" Davis finally responded, and it was in vain that Veemon tried to convince him to drop his mean attitude towards them. "Look at Angewomon. I shtill have feelingsh for her, but I know she's happy Angemon. All I want is her to be happy."

Davis understood Veemon's feelings, but he just didn't feel the same as he did, not when it came to Kari. "Veemon, it's not just about Kari and TK; it's about everyone. I'm really starting to think they take me for granted."

Veemon already knew the story and, again in vain, tried to convince Davis that the others were not trying to be mean to them both. "Davish, you have the Digiegg of Friendship, right?"

"Not this again." Davis sighed softly, not wanting to hear the same story again about Davis learning to be a good friend to possess it. "Veemon, I know all that." he said to his little friend "But don't you see the problem…?"

Veemon blinked once.

"Veemon, friendship goes both ways. I can't do all the work myself. I can't be the only friend." He then cast a look at all the others again "No, they have to do their share as well as me."

"What are you shaying?"

Davis hesitated for a long moment and finally let it out "I'm thinking I should quit the team."

Those words struck Veemon hard in his little heart. "You can't be sherioush?" but that look in his friend's eyes told him he couldn't be more serious. "But Davish, they're our friends; they need ush, and so does the Digital World."

Davis sighed again "I just don't know if I can handle it much longer, Veemon. Let's get back to the village."

Soon, thanks to teamwork the village was standing tall again, and all the fallen trees were cleared away and the new saplings were freshly planted. The little Digimon were all very happy and thankful, and the kids and their Digimon were all taking a break on the hill by some rocks with some sodas Yolei had brought. They just couldn't take anymore prune juice.

"I guess Davis and Veemon are still working on the dam." Ken said.

"Oh, he's probably already finished and just sulking some more." TK said "He is such an attention seeker."

"Come on TK, that's not very nice." Ken said.

"Uh, sorry Ken, but I actually agree with him." Yolei said.

"You mean he's still acting like a big sourpuss?" asked Gatomon. Kari confirmed it and even told the gang the message he gave her and TK in class. "Gee, he's really taking this hard." said Patamon. "Well he's got to get over it." TK said "I'm tired of looking at him scowling at me all the time."

"Ah, come on y'all…" said Armadillamon "Davis has done lots of good things for all of us, hasn't he?"

"That's not the point, Armadillamon." said Cody "Davis may have helped a lot but, that doesn't give him an excuse to act like a loudmouth jerk all the time."

Ken suddenly bolted upright "I can't believe you guys!" he said sharply "How can you keep talking about Davis like he's some kind of idiot?"

The others were all starring wide-eyed at him. "Gee, Ken, I don't remember the last time you ever used that voice."

Ken was suddenly trembling "Me either… I'm… I'm sorry." he sat down again. "Ken, we're just trying to tell you we don't like how Davis is acting." said Yolei.

"Um, actually, Yolei, I believe I'm inclined to agree with Ken." said Hawkmon "While I admit Davis' actions are rather inappropriate, did you ever stop to think maybe we are playing our own roles in making it worse?"

Gatomon didn't like the sound of that "Are you saying it's our fault he's acting like this?"

"I am simply pointing out that nothing is truly generated without reason or cause." replied Hawkmon, but most of the others completely disagreed with him. "Let's face it, he's a jerk." Kari suddenly said "And if he can't accept I made my choice, he can go to hell for all I care."

"Kari?!" snapped Ken "…That's cold!"

"I agree with Kari." TK said. Patamon and Gatomon agreed too, and so did Cody, but Kari was the only one doing all the talking or rather criticizing… completely unaware that Davis was standing on the other side of the rocks and heard everything she said.

"He foolishly risks his life, and always goes for the all-out attack. While I admit, it works sometimes, but when the day is done he always acts like he's the most important guy there is, but half the time he acts like such a kid, expecting us to praise him and worship him like he's some kind of golden god. He's not even worthy to lick their sandals clean."

One knife after another right through his heart, Davis slowly reached up to his head and was about to remove his goggles, when suddenly there was a loud booming sound, followed by the cries of the little Digimon in Primary Village shrieking and running in panic.

Three champion Digimon; Golemmon, Minotarumon, and Gorillamon had shown up with a lot of digging tools and equipment. Their intentions were to mine for digital ores and believed they would find large qualities of it under the Primary Village.

Minotarumon, the leader of the three said to his companions, "All right guys, first we get rid of the village. Then we start digging."

His companions agreed and headed straight for the village, scarring the tiny little Digimon half to death so they would run away. Suddenly, the Digi-Destined and their evolved Digimon stepped out in front of them. "Hold it right there!" snarled Davis.

"Get out of our way, punks!" growled Gorillamon "This is our turf now! We're going mine this whole area of every Digi-Ore we can find."

"There aren't any ores around here." said Yolei

"We don't believe that." sneered Golemon "Now beat it, or we'll beat you!"

"Just try it!" growled Ex-Veemon.

"Yeah, we're not afraid of you big blowhards!" added Davis "Come on, let's show em-" but he suddenly got cut off by TK yelling for everyone to "Charge!" and they all zoomed right by Davis and Ex-Veemon leaving them in a cloud of dust. "Well… uh… I guess we go with them." Said Ex-Veemon, Davis clenched his fists angrily and growled, he couldn't believe everyone just followed TK like that as if he was the team leader.

Nevertheless, the fight was on. The gang was hoping to stall them long enough so the village could be completely evacuated and all the un-hatched Digi-Eggs were taken to safety, but they were all about to be in for a nasty surprise.

"We can out number them." shouted TK.

The Digimon all agreed and ganged up on the three bullies. Angewomon felt she had the best advantage, being an Ultimate level, and she prepared to fire a warning shot **_"CELESTIAL ARROW!" _**but the three bullies didn't even run or even move out of the way and they each got hit by the shot, and the smoke had cleared Angewomon couldn't believe her eyes. "What? That hardly even scratched them?"

"How is that possible?" Kari wondered.

The others were just as surprised, but they weren't ready to give up. "Let's rush em!" shouted Ankylomon.

"Yeah!" added Aquilamon, and all the Digimon charged at the big brutes. "Go for Stingmon!" shouted Ken.

**_"SPIKING STRIKE…!" _**Stingmon dove straight at Minotarumon only to suddenly be grabbed by the arm and flipped down hard onto the ground. Just that one hit seemed to really damage him. "Stingmon!" cried Ken as he rushed over to help his friend "Are you okay?"

"Uhn… Ken… something's wrong!" cried Stingmon "They're stronger than they look!"

The others soon discovered the same, as one by one they tried to attack the three bullies. Most of their attacks did hardly as much damage as they would usually, and when the bullies fought back the other Digimon were bashed about like bumper cars. Even Angewomon could feel they were strong. "Truth hurts, doesn't it?" mocked Minotarumon. "You need to realize that levels don't mean that much of a difference to some of us anymore."

Goriliamon then launched his **_"ENERGY CANNON!"_**

"Look out!" cried Ex-Veemon and everyone was barely able to dodge the huge explosion from the shot. Angewomon's arm got hurt in the blast. "Angewomon, No!" cried Kari as she ran over to her.

"I'll be fine… I think."

Angemon and TK saw the whole thing and tried to attack the brutes back, but Angemon got struck hard.

The three bullies then approached Kari and her fallen Digimon, pounding their fists eager to beat them up, when suddenly **_"VEE-LASER!" _**POW! They all got blasted from the side, really hard which actually did them damage.

"You leave Kari alone!" growled Davis.

Ex-Veemon concurred, and gazed over at her, and even Angemon "You guys okay?"

Angemon thanked him and Angewomon smiled.

The three bullies didn't understand how they got hit so hard by Ex-Veemon. "Hey, you don't think he's just us do you?" said Golemon.

"Never mind!" growled Minotarumon "We don't need to deal with this. They can't stop us anyway. Let's trash this village." And all three of them decided the quick and easiest way was to destroy the dam, which would ultimately wash out the village and everything else in its path in a huge river rush.

The others saw no other alternative and decided to quickly help evacuate the rest of Primary Village before the brutes would flatten it, but Davis refused. "We can't give up now, we have to stop them."

"Davis, we can't beat them!" Cody said "Most of our Digimon are already hurt."

Yolei agreed with Cody "We've got to at least get all the little Digimon to safety."

Soon, all the others agreed with them, but Davis still refused insisting there wasn't enough time to get everyone clear, and there was no way he going to let the village they worked so hard to fix up as well as the lands beyond be flooded and destroyed. "Fine then, looks like I'm on my own again!"

"Don't be an idiot this time, Davis." TK scolded "We've tried our hardest, and it didn't work, so quit acting like a big shot and do the right thing for once in your life." But finally he had pushed Davis too far. "THAT'S IT…!" growled Davis, and he turned swiftly and socked TK hard in the face, knocking him down.

The others all gasped.

"Davis!" Kari thundered as she rushed over to help her boyfriend. TK looked up while rubbing his sore cheek "What's your problem?!"

Davis didn't answer and just ran off. "Davis, wait for me!" Ex-Veemon hollered as he chased after him. TK was angrier than hurt "JERK!" he shouted at Davis "I HOPE YOU GET MAULED!"

Kari was very angry as well, and the others couldn't believe what Davis had just done either, but they had to put their personal feelings aside and try to get the evacuation going, and would deal with Davis later.

The three brutes had reached the dam. "A few good punches and blasts ought to bust it open." said Minotarumon.

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's get busy." said Gorillamon.

"Yeah!" hollered Golemon and he began to climb up the dam and began to punch at the super solid stones along with Minotarumon, while Gorillamon prepared his cannon for a huge blast. "Ready, aim…!" and before he could fire he was hit from behind and knocking into the quiet river.

"Back off!" Davis hollered.

"We spent all afternoon fixing that!" added Ex-Veemon, and another fight began. The brutes all ganged up on Ex-Veemon, but strangely he didn't do as badly as the others did and managed to punch, kick, tail-swipe, and blast the brutes hard actually damaging them better than the others did. "Yeah…! You go, Ex-Veemon!" Davis cheered.

Ex-Veemon scoffed, "I don't know what the others were complaining about; you guys are just above lightweights for me!"

The brutes all looked like three hotheads. "You're gonna be digitized for that!" growled Minotarumon, and the fight continued, but suddenly Davis could see the dam was starting to crack and the water was leaking through. "Look out!" he cried "She's gonna blow!"

The others all looked and could see the water starting to gush through followed by loud rumbling noises. Ex-Veemon gave one final punch, hitting the three brutes hard into he rive and flew out to safety and grabbed Davis just as the dam burst wide open and the water began to gush out hard and fast and sending the three brutes hard up stream, and they shouted "WE'LL MEET AGAIN!"

The others were barely finished with the evacuation when they could feel the ground rumbling and they could see the water coming straight at them. "We've got to get everyone out of here!" cried Kari, but most of their Digimon were still hurt and couldn't help much. It really look like the water was going to get them and wipe out the village, and all the baby Digimon would get pulverized by the waves… had Davis and Ex-Veemon not come up with a last-second plan.

Ex-Veemon carefully positioned himself at the base of a huge rock-mountain outside the boundaries of the village. "Go for it!" shouted Davis.

His partner nodded **_"VEE-LASER!"_**

He fired multiple shots at the rocky walls causing it to shatter in huge boulders that fell down the hills, piling up and forming a small wall strong enough to block the water off from going any further, saving the village.

"Everybody all right...?" Davis shouted, and all the tiny Digimon hollered with joy that their home was safe, but the others were just speechless by what just happened. Even TK was shocked.

Soon, the waters calmed down and the Elders of the village agreed to build a new dam, a much stronger one. Davis had never received so many thanks from the Digimon and the elders. "You got it." Davis said, and then he turned to face all the others who were gawking at him awkwardly. He gruffly approaching them, preferably TK, looked him deep in the eyes and scolded "Somebody could've been hurt out here today because you. You want that to go on your filthy conscience as well?"

While TK was willing to admit Davis was right, he was still plenty angry with him for punching him, but it was Kari who spoke first "That's enough, Davis!" she scorned. "You had no right to punch my boyfriend like that, and you owe him an apology." But finally, even she had driven him too far. He could feel every last existing ounce of love he felt for Kari shatter inside him, and was replaced with unspeakable amounts of anger and hatred.

"Apologize… to him?" Davis said as he looked Kari dead in the eyes like a big giant "I'm not apologizing to this creep ever, Kari, or to you, and you want to know why I will tell you… you two are nothing but a couple of selfish, arrogant, nasty tempered little brats!"

Kari gasped hard as such an insult, and tried to speak back, but Davis continued to insult her and TK "And as I now see it, it would be better off for this whole gang if the two of you were locked up in cages and fed with sticks!"

TK felt his anger boiling and would have loved nothing more than to tackle Davis to the ground and beat him to death for all those horrid things he just said to his girlfriend.

"How dare you, Davis Motomiya!" growled Gatomon "You had no right to say that about Kari!"

"Or TK either!" growled Patamon.

"That was cold, Davis!" added Yolei.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" Cody sneered at him. Ken and Wormon said nothing, but all the other Digimon angrily glared at Davis obviously siding with Kari and TK for Davis' actions. Finally TK spoke "You've got ten seconds to apologize to me and to Kari."

Davis clenched his fist and would have loved to pound this jerk again, but finally he realized just how unworthy TK really was. "Fine then, I'm sorry …" Davis said, and he reached up and yanked off his goggles, slamming them onto the ground hard. "… Sorry I ever joined this miserable excuse of a team!"

"Davis!" cried Ken

"No!" Davis shouted and he began to walk away "I've had my fill of this. I've had my fill with all of you. Find someone else to kick around, because from now on we are no longer a team!"

Veemon called out "Davish! DAVISH?!" but Davis had already gone out of sight leaving all the others in a mixture of feelings but the two they felt most were anger and shocking at what just happened.


	2. Anger and Experience

**CHAPTER TWO**

Davis warped home to the real world, and walked through the park angrily kicking at the dirt, and he approached a trashcan chained to the lamppost and kicked it very forcefully, again, and again, and eventually he ran out of breath and slumped down on a nearby bench to try and relax, but all he could think of were his, now, Ex-friends and teammates. "I'm not the jerk, they are!" he kept on grumbling to himself as he softly scrapped his shoes in the dirt making small trails. "They tease me! They insult me! They grouch at me for everything I've done wrong and not once thanked me for anything I've done right! I save their lives, and all I get is TRASH!"

He angrily bolted upright and kicked the garbage can so hard that he hurt his foot a little. "Agrh…! Oh… man!" he sat back down on the bench now feeling angry, sad, and sore. He had never felt like this before, and didn't know how he could possibly stop it.

…

The others got home, and Kari invited the gang to her apartment near the school. Many of them were still very angry with what had happened. Especially TK who's check was now slightly black and blue where Davis had hit him! Kari got the first aid kit and helped treat it to stop it from swelling. "Ow…!" groaned TK as he felt the rubbing alcohol sting.

"Sorry." Kari said "Does it hurt that much?"

"Yes." her boyfriend replied. His face ached a bit as he moved his mouth to speak.

"What do we do now?" Ken asked.

Yolei gazed at him "Are you talking about Davis?"

Just the mention of his name made TK and Kari scowl angrily. No one else pretty much said anything, not even most of their Digimon. "Well, we have to do something?" Ken said.

"I say we just let him be, Ken." said Cody "If he wants to act like a whiny brat, then let him."

Many of the others agreed and felt that if Davis spent some time alone, eventually he'd realize how wrong he was and come crawling back to the team. "I don't think he will..." said Wormon "Believe me, I've seen anger before and I don't think this kind will simply disappear."

The others still didn't feel it would be that way, and they had something more important to deal with like how those three champion-level Digimon were so incredibly strong. "My arm still feels sore for where I got punched." said Gatomon.

"And what about Ex-Veemon?" asked Patamon "He didn't seem to have as much trouble as we did."

"I've emailed the data to Izzy." Said Kari "We'll just have to wait and see what he comes up with."

With that settled, the others decided to head home, but TK didn't know how he was going to explain his bruise to him mother. "She's going to flip her lid for sure, but I'll have to tell her the truth."

…

Davis spent a long time in the park trying to cool off, and then he went home only to find his folks were waiting for him with stern looks on their faces. "Mrs. Takashi called us." said his mom.

"Uh oh…" Davis muttered under his breath, and his father gave him such a stern stare "Davis, mind telling us why you hit T.J?"

"First of all; it's T…K." Davis said "And second, he really pissed me off today. They all did."

His folks never thought in a million years that they're son would admit hitting another kid. "That's no excuse!" snapped his mother "Daisuke Motomyia, you are grounded until further notice!"

"What?!" snapped Davis.

"Oh, yes!" growled his father "And while grounded you are restricted to the house except for school, and your paper route. No TV, no video games, and no computer!"

"You can't do this!"

"We just did!" said his mother "Now go to your room!"

Davis could feel his anger spiking again as he narrowed his eyes at his folks, but knowing he was in enough trouble, he walked past them and slammed his door shut. Once in his room, he found they had already confiscated his computer, all his video game consoles, and his TV. They even took away his cellphone.

"Great!" he growled as he flopped onto his bed. "Now I can't even go back to the Digital world and get Veemon to keep me company." He just lay flat down on his back and softly tossed his soccer ball up in the air.

His folks wouldn't even let him come out of his room for dinner and rather his mom just came in a placed a plate of food on his desk. He just turned away from her sulking angrily. "You can lose the attitude any time, young man." she said to him before leaving, but Davis was so ticked he didn't feel like eating, and just left his plate where it was.

…

Meanwhile, Kari was having dinner with her family, Tai was waiting for his date to come to the door, but he still sat at the table. He noticed Kari hadn't eaten much. "You okay?" he asked.

His sister looked up and shook her head softly. "You're not feeling sick are you?" asked her mom.

"No, it' just… well I…" Kari had to tell them the truth about what happened, and showed him the goggles he had given Davis; the same ones he angrily threw on the ground. "Whoa!" Tai muttered as he took his old goggles back. He never thought Davis would get so upset that he'd turn the goggles in. They meant almost the two worlds to him when Tai passed them on to him. "He must've been really jealous of you and TK."

"How could you tell?" Kari asked.

"Seriously?" her brother said "It was kind of hard not to see it coming. I mean, Davis has had the hots for you for… since… ever! I know what it feels like."

Kari sighed "I don't feel that way about him, Tai. I'm with TK. Besides, after the way Davis' acted today, I don't know what I feel about."

Tai wasn't sure what to tell Kari, or even what he really thought about Davis' actions, but he did understand a little why he would do what he did. He felt the same way when Sora decided she wanted to be with Matt, and he and Matt were just like Davis and TK in many ways; but Tai managed to move on and he found someone new.

That's when the doorbell rang. "There she is. I'm gone."

"Have a good time, honey." said his mom "And try to be back before eleven."

Kari still felt pretty upset, and now she was actually starting to feel worried. She had never seen Davis so upset before, and was beginning to feel maybe she did play a minor role; what with her constant teasing him and flirting with TK to make him jealous, and refusing to let him take her out just for one chance.

Still, he had no right to hit TK, or those horrible things to him or her and so she planned to just let Davis be for a bit, and maybe he'd snap out of his tantrums.

…

The next morning, Davis' mom was surprised to see Davis already out of bed when she would normally have to wake him up for school.

His father was at the table eating his breakfast and reading the newspaper "He actually got up early; that's not like him."

Jun looked up from her magazine and yawned sleepily "At least he is awake."

"Long date last night?" her mom asked.

Jun nodded but then again she was used to long dates, but not having to rise early.

Suddenly, Davis came out form the bathroom already showered and dressed for school, but still had that nasty scowl on his face. "Good morning son." His father said, but Davis totally ignored him. "Good morning, son!"

"Answer your father!" his mother sneered, but Davis just grabbed a piece of toast from the table and walked out the door. "He's still ticked with you guys." said Jun.

"Well, we're not exactly his number one fans right now either." said her father. "If he thinks he can give us attitude like this he's got another thing coming."

Jun was starting to think this was going to last quite a while. She knew how stubborn her father and brother could be.

…

At school, the others met up by Kari's locker. "Izzy sent me an email, we all have to meet at his place tonight." she told everyone.

"Cody said he'll meet us there." said Yolei.

"What about Davis?" asked Ken "Shouldn't we tell him?"

TK and Kari both gazed at each other, and though they were still angry. They decided to send him an email right then and there, but they had no need as they saw him coming down the hall, and he looked pretty grumpy and stopped right before them, especially TK. He looked him dead in the eyes and sneered softly but firmly "Thanks for getting me grounded! You stay the hell away from me unless you want to die!"

TK glared right back at him and clenched his fist, but Kari held his arm and shook her head. "You know what, you're not worth it." TK said, and he and Kari walked off to class together.

Yolei gazed at Davis angrily, and Ken gazed with concern. Davis slowly turned to gaze at them and sneered "Stop gawking at me!" and he walked off. Yolei merely grunted "Jerk!"

Ken gazed at his girlfriend with a look of disappointment.

"What?"

"I don't think I'm going to put up with much more of this, Yolei." he said and he walked off.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying if none of you will talk to Davis, then I will. Someone's got to put a stop to this."

Yolei wasn't sure if he was actually trying to defend Davis. "Well, do what you think is right, but you're going to regret It." she said almost in a threatening voice as she walked off to class.

…

All the rest of that day, Davis found it harder than ever to concentrate on his work. All he could think about was all the people who had pissed him off, especially Kari and TK. He practically just sat at his desks all day doodling pictures of himself forcing TK into hazardous conditions, like pushing him off a cliff, cooking him in burning oil, fishing for sharks with him as bait on the hook.

Unfortunately he got caught by the teacher, and was scolded for not paying attention. "Do we have a problem, Motomiya?"

"N…N…No sir."

"Really…? I think we do, but you can tell me all about it… _in detention_ after school."

Some of the students laughed at him, but Davis felt his anger rising higher than ever again.

…

After school and detention, Davis practically ran through the school hoping not to be late for his paper route, and he found Ken waiting for him at his locker. "Davis, we have to talk."

"Not now!" Davis snapped "I'm late enough as it is."

"But Davis…"

"I said I'm late! Besides, I really don't want to talk about this anyway." He quickly grabbed his bag and ran off. "Davis, come back here!" Ken hollered, but a passing teacher told him to tone down his volume. Ken sighed irritably, but now he really had to head over to Izzy's to meet up with the gang.

…

They met up at Izzy's, as promised. "Where's Davis?" he asked.

"Don't ask." said TK "It's his problem."

Izzy sighed, knowing fully well what was happening between the gang, but what he had to tell them was a little too important to wait any longer and felt it would be best of Davis was sent an email later on.

"I've studied the data you gave me, and it proves a theory I've been having about Digimon and their levels of strength."

"What is it exactly?" Cody asked.

Izzy showed them a chart of all the levels of Digimon from Baby to Mega. "Now we all know the basic rules of how levels make a difference, but lately I've been wondering something else about Digimon; that they are able to grow in natural physical strength almost like humans."

The others all gasped in awe, and the Digimon found this astonishing yet confusing. Even Tentomon asked "Uh, what exactly does this mean, Izzy?"

Izzy then showed more computer images. Of humans, and compared their growth stages to Digimon levels. "Think of we all start out as babies, and then we grow a little much like Digivolving to In-Training, and then we grow a little more into preteens; Rookies, and so on and so on."

"What's this gotta do with Digimon?" asked Armadillamon.

"Hold on, I'm coming to that." replied Izzy "As babies, we start off weak and pretty small, but as we grow we learn and experience new things, and our bodies change in strength as well as size and appearance, and thus we find ourselves stronger, smarter, and able to do more things that we couldn't before."

The others began to catch on, especially Yolei "You mean Digimon can grow stronger in natural strength?"

Izzy nodded "Exactly; almost like how and online roleplaying video game character gains experience points. The more experience, the strong it gets. Those Digimon you fought were all Champions, but they obviously must have been doing some working out, and so they've become stronger."

Patamon blinked once in near disbelief "Wow! It's like Digivolving into a high level without actually Digivolving at all."

Izzy nodded "And what's more, Ex-Veemon, further proved my theory is correct." He reshowed the data images of Ex-Veemon fighting the three brutes without breaking much of a sweat. "Of course…" Hawkmon said "It's the only explanation." He referred to the fact that even though they all faced countless enemies over the years, in many times they would all just run away, while Davis and Ex-Veemon would continue on no matter what the odds and face the bigger boss bad guys themselves, and never before had they lost yet. This would gain Ex-Veemon a ton of experience, and even more with all the battle he had merged with Stingmon.

"Exactly right, Hawkmon…" Izzy said "That also makes Ex-Veemon's actual power level impossible to determine. He could very well even be stronger than all of your Digimon in their strongest forms."

Most of the Digimon gawked in shock and worry, as did their partners, but TK wasn't sure about this. "Why didn't anything like happen before?" he asked. "We've all had tons of adventures and loads of battles where we didn't run away."

"I haven't figured that out yet…" said Izzy "But don't try and ignore this. It's real, and I think it could mean danger for us and for the Digital World."

The others knew what he meant; if the three brutes they faced had obviously learned about this new discovery, there was no telling who else did and how long they had been training for. Weak Digimon could possibly fight like super charged up fighting machines and some most likely wouldn't do it for the good of the Digital World.

"It means we're going to keep our guard up from now on." said Wormon.

"You're, Wormon. Who knows when another attack could strike or if we can even handle it?" added Ken.

"We'll have to find some way to boost our Digimon and their experiences." added Yolei, but most of the others felt that would be difficult to do. Even Izzy admitting she was getting ahead of herself and that he hadn't quite figured it all out yet. "All I know so far is that beating Digimon in battle gets you experience; only by actually fighting and it could take months, years even."

The gang hardly knew what to think now. TK was still in denial about this however, and even if it were real he wasn't up for just needlessly fighting just to gain any strength. Some of the others didn't like his attitude, but he did have a point about the needless reason to fight.

Izzy promised to keep doing research and he would inform Tai and all the others. "Make sure Davis knows about this too." he said.

"I'll tell him." Ken said, and he got up to leave.

"Ken, wait." said Yolei "We can just send him an email, remember?"

"I'd rather talk to him in person."

The others could tell he was going to try and reason with Davis again. "Ken, when are you going to realize he's not going to listen?" asked TK.

"I have to try! He's my best friend; maybe he'll be less hostile around me. Don't try and stop Me." and he and Wormon left, but Yolei couldn't let him do this alone. "Maybe I should go too." said Cody "…In case things get ugly again."

"I'm with you, Cody." said Armadillamon.

TK and Kari didn't really want to talk to or see Davis, but realizing how important this was, they felt maybe it best they go along too. They had to pass by his building on their way to their homes anyway.

…

Davis had finished his paper route. He found a note telling him his folks went out to dinner, obviously not inviting as he was still grounded. They wrote saying they left him some dinner in the refrigerator and he was to eat, but also… if they came home and found him disobeying their restrictions he'd be in real trouble.

But after seeing he was home alone, for Jun was obviously out on another date. "Screw this. They're not here. I can do what I want." Davis saw this as the perfect opportunity to sneak into his folks' room and get his computer out from their closet and set it up to access his home Digi-Port. He was just about to warp when the doorbell rang. "Ugh!"

He answered the door and found Ken there with all the others. "Hey Davis…"

His scowl tightened "What are you guys doing here?" he then cast a look at TK and Kari "Especial them!"

Kari and TK scowled at him, but they walked in along with everyone else. "Hey, did I say you could come in?" Davis snarled.

"Look, Davis I know you're pissed." Ken said.

"No, Ken… I'm not pissed." Davis cut in "You've seen me pissed before. This is way, way beyond pissed. I told you guys we weren't a team anymore."

"That's enough, Davis!" growled Cody "We just came to tell you about what we learned today and how the whole Digital World could be in danger."

"That's your problem." Davis sneered "Don't expect me to bail you guys out because you're too cowardly to wipe your own butts!"

The others really took that offensively, even Ken. "Davis! That was mean."

"Don't waste your breath, Ken." said TK "I knew this would happen, we come here to give him a friendly warning, and he acts like a little crybaby."

Davis glared at TK "How would you like me to bust every bone in your body?"

TK really felt like hitting him for that this time, but it was actually Kari who slapped him across the face. "That's enough, Davis!" she growled at him "I can't believe you! You're obviously not the guy I thought you were, and you wonder why I choose TK over you. He's twice the guy you'll ever be!" Then she and her boyfriend angrily marched out along with Cody. Yolei blew a raspberry at Davis and headed out the door, but Ken stood where he was.

"Ken!" Yolei practically snarled at him, demanding he come. Ken turned back to face Davis, whom he had never seen with a more stern look on his face. "Get out, and don't come back!" he growled through his clenched teeth.

Ken didn't know whether to feel angry or sad, just having been told by his best friend. He stepped outside the door, and gazed at him on last time, only for Davis to slam the door. Ken really felt heart-struck; as Davis made it clear he really didn't care anymore. "Never mind, Ken." said Yolei putting her arm around him, but Ken angrily stretched out of her grip "Don't touch me right now."

Yolei felt as if she had been slapped in the face "Ken…?"

"Don't! I want to be alone for a bit." and he walked off by himself. Wormon and Hawkmon didn't like this, and Wormon dashed to catch up with him.

The other Digimon were very angry with Davis, especially Patamon and Gatomon "How does Veemon put up with him?" Gatomon wondered.

"I feel sorry for him, having to put up with that guy…" added Patamon.

Poor Yolei felt tears coming to her eyes, almost as if Ken had broken up with her and she ran down the opposite way of the wall trying not to cry. TK and Kari blamed Davis for this and felt someone really needed to teach him a lesson.

Meanwhile, Davis finally got his chance and warped to the Digital World and found Veemon still in Primary village where he had spent the last while helping building the new dam for the river. "Davish!" he cried excitedly as he jumped into his arms. "Hey, I'm sorry I forgot to bring you back with me. I would've come but my folks pulled the plug."

Veemon wasn't surprised there, but he was glad to see Davis wasn't so angry anymore, but he didn't dare talk about it, not sure if he was over it. "What do you think of the new dam?"

"Cool! That should keep the water out."

Veemon smiled, and Davis told him not to expect him around for a while longer. He didn't know how long he was going to be grounded for. This made Veemon sigh, and he really wished he could convince Davis to apologize to TK and the others, but he knew Davis, and kept his head leveled in hopes Davis would realize his errors.

"I better get back." Davis said "My folks could be home any minute." He couldn't take Veemon with him as it would violate his parents' rules of not coming straight home, and it would give that he used the computer. He was about to leave, when suddenly large shadows zoomed over them followed by loud screeching noises. They looked up and saw a swarm of Falcomon; Champion Digimon. Normally they couldn't fly very well and usually glided along the wind, but now they were soaring majestically, and something told Davis they hadn't come for a friendly hello, the way they gazed right at him and Veemon "I think we're in for a fight." said Veemon.

"Let's show 'em." Davis said and activated his D-Terminal, gazing at the two Digi-Eggs he had especially the Digi-Egg of Friendship, and he felt really bad about it what with the current circumstances. "Davish, what are you waiting for?"

Davis snapped to "Oh, sorry!" and selected the Digi-Egg of Courage _"Digi-Armor Energize!"_

_"Veemon Armor-Digivole to…_

_…Flamdramon, the Fire of Courage!"_

The swarm gazed at Flamdramon and soared straight for him. "You won't beat us with our new strengths!"

"Yeah, we've been training."

Flamdramon was not impressed. "Let's fight flying with frying! **_FIRE ROCKET!" _**Blazing brightly in fire, he leapt up super high in the air and out of the way, bashed the baddies hard. "Yeah, that's showin' em!" Davis cheered, but Flamedramon was still outnumbered as the Falconmon ganged up on him. **_"FALCO RUSH!"_** and they kicked him several times as he descended in his jump and he landed with a huge thud "Are you okay?" Davis called out and his preteen bolted upright on his feet "I'm just getting warmed up, literally."

The Falcomon zoomed straight down at him **_"SCRATCH SMASH!"_**

Flamdramon just stood where he was with his warms out like a shield and took each hit one at a time. "Come on, Flamdramon, just hang in there." hollered Davis.

The Falcomon continued to strike and Flamdramon just continued to take in those attacks. Finally, the Falconmon stopped striking and could hardly believe their eyes.

"Hey! Something's wrong with this guy. He's not falling down."

Flamdramon smirked cheekily "Too bad isn't it; **_FLAME FIST!"_** and he unleashed his fireballs blasted at the already tired baddies, and forcing them to retreat knowing they couldn't win. "All right!" cried Davis.

Flamdramon nodded and changed back into Veemon. "Wow! All of a shudden I feel way shtronger than I was before." he said.

"Hey, you were awesome out there." Davis said, and Veemon smirked at him, but suddenly Davis realized that he had to get back home fast and dashed for the portal. "Gotta go!" he cried and he warped back into his parents' room, right in front of them.

They were standing there with their arms folded and scowling angrily at him. "Oh, no…!"


	3. Fists of Fury

**CHAPTER THREE**

Davis tried to explain what was happening, but his angry folks didn't seem to care much "You have defied us many times before, young man, but this is the last straw." said his father.

"You go to your room, right now, and are to go there whenever you come home and stay there. You are not going to go anywhere, except for school and your paper route or the bathroom. You are no longer invited on family outings, and you can forget about going to soccer-camp in the spring. Now go!"

Davis could not believe this. The Digital world was in danger and all they could do was scold him. He wasn't going to take this anymore. "No!" he snarled.

"What did you say to me?"

"I said… No!" growled Davis "And frankly mom, I am sick and filthy fed up with you and dad and everyone else telling me what to do, especially seeing as how you are totally, one-hundred percent wrong!"

His mother and father could not believe his lip. "Daisuke, I am warning you right here and now!"

"No! I'm warning you, old man!" snarled Davis "You have bullied me; you have never listened to me, and you always being the big guy. Well now it's my turn, so YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN!"

"Davis! That's enough!" his mother yelled.

"No, you enough…!"

His father was really starting to lose his temper "If you mouth off at us one last  
time. One little peep, I am going to break every psychological nerve in my body and belt you!"

Davis, not fearing either of them a bit, really crossed the line. "…Peep!" and his father lunged at him, tackling his son to the ground and smacking him hard in the face, but Davis managed to punch him hard in the mouth and kick him off of him. "STOP IT!" screamed his mother.

"NO, YOU STOP!" shouted Davis and he punched her hard in the face sending her flipping over the bed. His father practically screamed like a maniac and lunged at his son with his belt at the ready, but Davis threw a book straight at his groin stalling him just long enough for him to grab the belt and lash his father hard and his punch and kick when his mother tried to grab him. "You wanna punish me so more?!" he snarled as he continued to thrash at his parents "You want to bully me?! Here, how do you like it?"

Finally, Davis could see had beaten them hard enough. All three of them looked pretty beat up. They had bruises, black spots, they're clothes were ripped; Davis's father had blood marks all over his back from being belt lashed. The computer was still plugged in, and Davis saw this as his chance to finally do something he always wanted… leave home and never return.

He stopped to gaze at his folks one last time "If you two ever come near me again… I'll go for the kill! I HATE YOU BOTH!" His folks gazed at him with painful eyes and he turned back and warped away! His mother burst in tears, and his father could hardly move but he really at a loss. "My son...!"

…

Davis arrived in the Digital World panting heavily. His clothes were no longer torn, but he still looked injured. "Davish?!" Veemon cried. He was surprised to see him back after just five minutes, and as if he had been through a storm. "What happened?"

Davis didn't answer and fell to his knees and then flat on the ground crying in shame, regret, hatred, and extreme misery. Veemon hated seeing him like this but he could tell something had gone horribly wrong back at home "You didn't?"

Davis just continued to cry. That's all he felt he could do.

…

Back in the real world, the police had arrived thanks to the neighbors in other apartments hearing the commotion and making the calls… and all just as Jun was coming home from her date… with Tai!

_Yes, they were a couple, and had been going out for two whole years. No one understood what he saw in her, but he said they just didn't understand._

They pulled up near the building and could see the police cars and even an ambulance in the parking way, and Tai could see "Jun… is that your dad?"

"What?!" snapped Jun as she saw them taking her father in handcuffs but on a stretcher away, and there was her mother, injured but not seriously, standing at the door sobbing like there was no tomorrow. She ran out of the car and Tai followed her. "Mom…! What happened?"

Her mother just hugged Jun tightly and cried her heart out. Jun asked one of the cops what happened. "Your dad's been arrested for starting a brawl with your brother. Your brother ran away. We don't know where he is."

Jun felt her heart ripping in half and tears coming to her eyes. Tai had heard everything and he was just outraged, shocked, and very upset. "God Damn it, Davis!" he muttered.

The news went crazy within the hour. Practically every station was telling the story of the happenings. Yolei and her family were the first ones to see it, and she suddenly got an Email from Cody saying he had seen it too. "I don't believe it." Yolei said.

TK and Kari saw it too while they were out on a dinner date, when the TV in the restaurant changed to the story. "I can't believe it!" cried Kari.

"That idiot!" said TK "He's really done it!"

Ken saw it too. "No… Davis…!"

…

The next day at school, Davis hadn't shown up, but there was a lot of talk going on about him and the big fight with his folks. Some thought it was wicked cool, others were scared to death. Some were even making up falsehoods about what happened, but not a single person had any clues where he could have run off to.

Only the gang knew what really happened, after Kari was told by Tai what happened the other night when he dropped Jun off at home, and it didn't take that to realize he had obvious run off to the Digital World. "We have to do something…" Ken said "He's probably in great danger. He doesn't know about the experience points and all that."

The others felt deep down that Ken was right, but they didn't answer him for they were skeptical about the idea. "Ken, it's not like we don't want to or anything." Yolei said "But… I just don't think we should right now."

Ken was shocked.

"She's got a point, Ken." said Kari "Davis is pretty ticked, and I don't think it'll be a good idea to approach him right now."

"Besides, if he is in danger he's got Veemon with him." added TK "He can take care of himself. He's already proven that."

Ken didn't like the way TK sounded and he stormed off. "Ken, wait up!" cried Yolei as she chased after him. Kari thought TK was a bit harsh there. "I'm not all that wrong." TK said "He's been nothing but a jerk for days; you said that to him yourself."

Kari didn't answer and was starting to feel maybe she was a little responsible; hitting him in the face and saying those horrible things to him. She practically was no different than he was. What really worried her was who Davis would take his temper out on next. "You saw it, TK. Who knows what he's capable of doing in his condition."

TK was already aware of that, and he didn't want to admit it but he worried too. What if Davis totally lost it and became the next big bad guy they would have to fight to save the Digital World. "Maybe we should go after him after all."

Kari smiled and pecked him on the cheek.

…

Davis just couldn't himself to go back to the real world after what he had done. Surely by this point his face was plastered all over the news and people would gaze him with more shame, more hate, and treat him worse than ever. _"I don't need them. I don't need anyone back there."_ he kept thinking to himself _"Why should I go back; so they can ignore and punish me? I'll just stay here forever and ever."_

"Davish…?" Veemon called to him "Are you okay?"

Davis snapped out of his trance "No… I'm not." he said.

Veemon wasn't going to keep it to himself any longer "Look Davish, all thish rage and hate isn't good for you. Don't you think it would be easier if you just apologized and made up for what you did?"

Davis still couldn't believe Veemon was still on that kick, but not wanting to lose the only friend he had left, he merely told him "Veemon, I just don't think you understand. Remember what I said about friendship and trust is a two-way street? Well that's just it; I don't think it'll ever be the same with the gang and me ever again. They made it clear, and so did I."

"Not with that attitude, you won't." said a voice.

Veemon and Davis looked ahead and saw "Tai…?"

"…And Augmon too." added Veemon.

"Long time no see, guys…" said Agumon, but Tai didn't look so cheery, and Davis didn't seem all too thrilled to see him either. "How did you know I was here?"

"Really Davis…? It didn't take much." Tai answered "Just thought you'd like to know your dad's out of jail, but he can't come home for a while, because of what happened."

Davis felt sore for just a split second and then scoffed "Serves him right."

Tai and Agumon, even Veemon couldn't believe he said that. "Davis, how can you say such a thing?" Agumon asked "He's your father."

"He's the guy who threw the first punch." Davis said

"Only after _you_ egged him on." snapped Tai. Then he quickly calmed down before he made things any worse. "Look, Davis… I just came here to talk to you, you know, maybe work something out."

"Tai, there's nothing to work out." Davis said "I'm on my own now. You guys don't have to put up with me anymore, and vice versa; everyone's happy."

"Sure, everyone's real happy, Davis. That's why your mom is in tears, your sister is all broken up, and you got the gang in a few fights with each other. Honestly Davis, you have to stop all this."

Davis was really growing annoyed with everyone ignoring his feelings and saying he had to change and do all the apologizing. "I've always been there for everyone, I've busted my balls to try and fit in and even saved everyone's butts countless times, what good is it to them, especially Kari."

Tai tried hopelessly in vain to tell Davis to let his obsession with Kari and TK go. "Kari always saw you as a good friend. You were special to her, and how did you repay her?"

Davis scoffed "Some friend she was; always teasing me and flirting with TK to make me jealous. Real friends don't do that to real friends, Tai."

Tai couldn't argue with that, but Davis sighed and said "What am I talking to you for anyway? You got your hooks into my sister after Matt took Sora, and you got friends who care for you. While you're at it, you could just stick a knife in my head."

The others couldn't believe he just said that, especially Veemon

Davis left it at that and began to walk away. "Come on, Veemon."

Veemon sighed and followed him.

"Davis, wait…!" Agumon called "You can't just stay here forever all angry and miserable."

Davis didn't answer him and continued to walk away. Tai sighed "Well, that went well."

"Maybe he just needs more time, Tai."

"I don't know, Agumon. I just don't know."

As Davis and Veemon walked down the road, Veemon felt like telling Davis to listen to Tai, but decided against it, but he didn't know how much longer he could keep it to himself much longer. _"Why can't you be like me?" _he thought quietly _"I shtill like Gatomon, but she's happy with Patamon."_

…

Tai emailed Kari on her D-Terminal and she picked up at lunch. Kari sighed "I can't believe Davis is being so… stubborn."

"I can." said Yolei.

"Me too." added TK.

This made Ken scowl, but he didn't say a thing, until after lunch while he and Yolei walked to their next period together "I'm still going, Yolei. I have to try and talk to him again."

"Ken, if Tai can't talk some sense into him, what makes you think we can?"

"Because, it's what Davis would probably do if it were one of us." he referred to how Davis was stubborn and how that stubbornness led him to not ever give up on anything. "He wouldn't even give up on me after all we went through in the old days." he clenched his fists in shame "He gave me a chance when no one else did, and I earned everyone's respect, especially yours. I just feel we owe Davis a bit more than we think."

Yolei sighed and agreed to come, but she didn't know about the others.

…

After school, everyone met at Izzy's place, Tai had even recruited the old gang, including Matt and Sora. "I can't remember the last time we were all together since the Million Rays of Light." said Joe.

Mimi agreed; she had just moved back to Japan a few weeks ago, only now to hear about all this. "Do you think Davis will actually listen to us?" she asked.

"I doubt it…" said Tai "He wasn't exactly reasonable when I talked with him."

"Don't blame yourself, Tai." said Sora "For all we know he's probably just going through adolescence, or this is just some phase that needs to run its course. Like you and Matt did."

"She could be right." her boyfriend said "But that still doesn't excuse Davis to treat us all like we're the enemy. He's no prize pig himself."

"Will you STOP THAT!" snarled Ken. He suddenly felt everyone in the room staring at him. "I'm sorry I yelled, but can you all please stop insulting Davis like that, it's not making things any better."

"Ken has a point…" said Izzy "Remember, we just want to talk to Davis, we don't want to make things any worse by fighting with him."

"Speak for yourself." TK muttered silently. Nobody heard him… except Kari, and she didn't like the sound of that one bit. It sounded as if TK's old anger and hatred towards evil was starting to surface again.

With all the plans laid out, they all warped to the Digital World, and Agumon had gathered all the other Digimon waiting for them. Tai's group was delighted to near tears to see their old friends again after a long time, Mimi and Palemon were both blubbering like babies again. "Oh, my…!" Hawkmon sighed "They always do this."

"All right, we all can all make up later, right now we've got a job to do." said Matt.

The others all agreed, and Digivolved all their Digimon, except for Joe since Gomamon could neither fly nor run very fast. Palemon didn't Digivole either, because even as Lilymon she wouldn't be able to carry Mimi around so easy. So they all rode with Izzy on MegaKabuterimon.

"I've got a fix on Davis." said Izzy "He's a little ways north from here, but watch out. There may be other Digimon lurking around and we may not know how powerful they are."

"Well, let's get going." hollered Tai, and everyone headed off. Kari was worried what Davis would act like when they found him, but TK pretty much was caring less and less. "TK, are you okay?" Kari asked.

"I'm fine!" he said sharply, making her wince. He quickly apologized, but Kari knew it. "TK, please don't push it."

Her boyfriend took in a deep breath and promised to try, but Angemon and Angewomon felt that there was defiantly going to be trouble. "I won't do anything harsh." said Angewomon.

Angewomon smiled "Thanks, I know at least Veemon won't be against us… I hope."

…

Davis and Veemon had gone a long way, and Davis felt a little better after that long walk, and he was relaxing on a beach, just stretched out on the lawn. "Ah, yeah… this is the life." he sighed "No problems, no worries. I should've done this long ago."

Veemon turned his head "Ah, come on, you don't really mean that?"

"Sure I do. I go where I like. Do what I like. Nobody can kick me when I'm down."

Veemon added his own point of view. "No one can love you, or look after you. No one can share with you…"

Davis sighed "Veemon, you're trying too hard."

"Maybe you're not trying hard enough." said Veemon, but it said it too himself.

Suddenly, they could feel the ground rumbling. Davis and Veemon looked around and they saw non-other than Scorpiomon, and he looked pretty grumpy. "What are you two doing here?" he snarled.

"Yo' chill out, we're just chillin'" Davis said.

"And you just had to pick _this particular spot?"_

"Uh, lasht we checked, the beach was for everyone to enjoy!" snapped Veemon, but Scorpiomon was reefing to the particular spot they had chosen to relax on the beach where he had buried a secret stash of his clams, and when it came to clams, Scorpiomon were completely unreasonable, and would give a fight off. "You will pay!" he roared.

Davis and Veemon felt both shuddered in fear, and Scorpiomon poised his huge claws **_"STINGER SURPRISE!"_** and fired energy beams which Davis and Veemon evaded by jumping out of the way. "You two can't get away from me!" growled Scorpiomon as he swung his claws and tail.

"Veemon, you'll have to Digivolve!" shouted Davis.

"But he's an Ultimate Digimon."

"I know, but we can't let him bully us like this! Let's show him!"

Unable to ignore it, Veemon agreed, and Davis activated his D3.

_"Veemon Digivolve to…_

_…Ex-Veemon!"_

"Okay you big-bully, this is your last chance." growled Ex-Veemon, but Scorpiomon only laughed at him "Your first mistake was getting near my clams, and your second is threatening me."

Ex-Veemon scowled and flexed his muscles "I gave you a peaceful chance, but it looks like you asked for it."

"Give it to him, Ex-Veemon." Davis hollered.

Scorpiomon had heard enough of this and lunged at Ex-Veemon "Take this…!" he growled, but Ex-Veemon grabbed both his claws in one claw and his tail with the other, much to his surprise. "What the?!" and the next thing he knew, Ex-Veemon sent him flying and crashing hard on the sand.

"Yeah!" cheered Davis "That's what you get for being a big bully."

Scorpiomon shook himself back onto his legs. "What's going on? You're a Champion; I should be able to beat the living daylights out of you."

"A drag, I know. What'cha gonna do about it?"

Scorpiomon angrily looked like a steaming hot lobster, and lunged at Ex-Veemon. The two brawled hard exchanging attacks. Ex-Veemon got hit several times due to the level disadvantage, but thanks to his high experience he never stayed down too long and always jumped back to return the punishment.

Scorpiomon swung his tail swiftly shouting **_"TAIL BLADE!"_** and Ex-Veemon swerved and dodged every strike and grabbed onto his tail. "Time for a little hammer throw." And he actually whirled that huge Digimon around three times before throwing him back up the beach and onto the sand right near his clam hoard. "My beautiful clams!" he cried.

"Ooh… not good!" cried Davis.

"Oh, boy!" muttered Ex-Veemon, and Uh Oh was right as Scorpiomon could never possibly look more angry. "Okay! It's one thing to be shown up by a Champion, but no one hurts my clams and gets away with it!" He roared loudly as if he was making the very world erupt like a volcano.

Matt and Sora were just nearby with Birdramon and Garurumon. "You guys hear that?" asked Garurumon. "It sounded like it came from on the beach." said Matt.

"Let's check it out." snapped Sora.

"You got it." said Birdramon.

They all dashed on ahead and arrived at the low cliffs overlooking the beach, and what they saw they could barely believe; Ex-Veemon facing a Scorpiomon and winning?

Ex-Veemon tossed Scorpiomon one last time. "No more!" he whimpered weakly "You win, I can't take it anymore. Just leave me alone."

Davis and Ex-Veemon stood where they were glaring at him and Davis scolded "Maybe next time you'll think twice before you act like that again."

The others on the cliff immediately got the wrong idea; that Davis and Ex-Veemon were bullying the Scorpiomon, venting his anger out on him. "Hey!" Matt shouted as he and the others headed down the slope and landed on the beach. They're Digimon changed back to their Rookie forms.

Davis' anger began to stiffen at the very sight of them, especially TK's brother, whom he was also not very fond of. "What happened here?" Sora asked angrily.

Scorpiomon lied and pointed at Davis and Ex-Veemon "Them…! I was just here on the beach when they came and beat me up like this for no reason."

"What?!" snapped Davis "You attacked us!"

Matt and Sora didn't really buy Scorpiomon's story, but as Davis expected, they gave him a sour look. "Look, Davis, we know you're upset but you didn't have to go overboard." said Matt.

"Excuse me?!" Davis said.

"Oh, no…!" Ex-Veemon muttered, and he changed back into Veemon. "Uh, Davish, maybe we should jusht go." Biyomon and Gabumon were just as worried, but Davis wouldn't back down. "…Don't go overboard?!"

"Well, you could have just walked away." Sora said calmly "You didn't have to get so personal."

"Like I had much of a choice..." Davis sneered at her "Not that you'd know a thing about it!"

Matt was really starting to lose his cool. "Stop it!" he growled "Don't you dare talk to my girlfriend like that. We came here to talk and reason with you!"

"Well, you sure made a wrong first move. Besides, why should I be talking to you anyway? You're TK's brother and no different than he is."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Gabbumon's fur stiffened, and Biyomon's feathers tinkled "Uh oh, they're going to blow!" she cried. "Look you guys, just chill out already."

"Be quiet!" Davis growled "I've been waiting to stand up to this creep as well."

"What?! Creep?!" snarled Matt. Even Sora was starting to lose her patience "He's not a creep Davis!" she growled at him "He's come a long way since we were kids."

"I don't care!" Davis said "I'll never forget the way he always acts all macho and brash, trying to be the big man. He's not different from himself and Tai than I am from myself TK."

"For your information, you little brat, I'm nothing like my brother!" snarled Matt.

"Oh, really…?" Davis growled "Yet you stole Sora away from Tai!"

Sora felt livid "He never stole me from, Tai. He and I were never a couple, we were just really good friends, and he accepted that."

"Yeah, but he could have had feelings for you. Did you ever stop to think about that, or we're you too busy being swept off your feet by Matt!"

Matt clenched his fists and teeth trying to contain his anger. Veemon even begged Davish, angrily to stop now, but finally he had gone too far. "You are just like you're stupid brother! Selfish, mean, and you steal crushes. I bet your father did the same thing with your mom, and stole her from someone else."

"That's it!" yell Matt and grabbed Davis by the collar, but Davis quickly punched him in the face. "Matt, stop it!" screamed Sora, but Matt had already lunged at Davis again, and the two were brawling just as fiercely as the night when Davis fought with his parents.

"You take that back!" yelled Matt! "TAKE IT BACK!"

"NEVER…!" Davis shouted and threw sand in Matt's face stunning him giving Davis the chance to flip him own and ram numerous punches in his face. Sora ran over to try and pries the two apart. "Leave him alone!" she screamed, but Davis shoved her out of the way and onto the sand, scraping her leg.

Matt could feel something inside of him snap and losing all care if Davis was just a kid. He tackled Davis to the ground attempting to choke him for hurting his girlfriend like that. "You… don't EVER… EVER HIT MY GIRL LIKE THAT AGAIN!" he shouted.

The others had just arrived at the cliffs, having received the message form Sora and Matt earlier, and what they saw turned their bloods cold. "Matt!" cried TK.

"Davis!" screamed Kari.

Davis was struggling to get Matt off, and all the Digimon tried to get him off. "Matt, please stop!" cried Gabumon. "Help us, Veemon!" cried Biyomon, and soon all three of them were working hard to pull Matt off of Davis, and Sora did as well.

"Come on guys!" cried Tai as he and the others rushed down the slope to try and break up the fight, but Davis had managed to break his arm free, and grabbed a rock that was on the sand near him he swiftly bashed Matt hard in the temple… WHAMM!

WHAMM!

WHAMM!

…and Matt was knocked clean off of him, and fell onto the sand completely out cold, and the side of his head was bleeding softly. Sora screamed. "MATT!" cried Gabumon, all the others came down and dashed over to Matt. Joe felt his pulse. "He's all right, he's just knocked out." and he quickly got to work with his emergency kit.

Everyone, even Ken all turned and looked furiously at Davis. "How could you?!" snarled TK "You sick, miserable…!" he lunged at Davis to fight him, by many of the others held him back. "TK, stop, it won't help!" cried Tai. TK was still badly shaken, but it seemed Kari was even worse than he was. "I can't believe you, Davis!" she said sounding both angry and near tears. "How could you do such a thing?"

Davis stood where he was still in shock himself. Feeling the exact same bit of regret deep down like that night when he beat up his folks, but still feeling angry he snarled "He threw the first punch! That's all! He got what he had coming to him, and I'm getting out of here before I really get pissed and thrash all the rest of you. It's exactly what you deserve! Come on, Veemon." But Veemon wouldn't follow him. "Veemon…?"

Veemon just backed away from him, and gazed up at him with fear, shame, and extreme resentment. "Davish, I never thought I'd shay this about you… but… but…" he finally let it out "…YOU'RE A MISERABLE HATEFUL JERK! I HATE YOU!"

Everyone gasped in shock, and Davis felt heart struck. He thought he could trust Veemon as the only friend he had left. "Fine!" he growled "Fine! You want to side with them, just like everyone else then go! I HATE YOU TOO! I HATE ALL OF YOU! I DON'T WANT THE DIGI-EGG OF FRIENDSHIP ANYMORE!" HE angrily activated his D-Terminal, got out the Digi-Egg and gave a hard soccer kick into the ocean! Then he ran off at such a furious pace he could have left a burning trail.

Veemon felt his insides aching, and he fell to his knees and cried. Yolei came and comforted him, but she felt like her own heart was breaking too, so did many of the others. The friendship seemed really over!

…

As for Davis, he had run a very long way from the beach before collapsing flat on the ground, out of breath, and never felt so incredibly hurt in his life. "Why me?!" he muttered to himself trying to fight his tears "Why?!"

**_Author's notes_**

**_*Panting*_**

**_Oh boy! My blood is really rushing as I make this. I don't think I've ever made a Digimon fic this powerful before!_**


	4. Equally Guilty

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Matt woke up, and did he have one heck of a headache. Just simplest and softest sounds were enough to make him groan. His anger and outrage at Davis didn't help either. "If I ever see that little squirt again I'll-" but he stopped when his head really throbbed, and Sora warned him to do no such thing. "I know how you feel. I'm just as mad with him, but it really will not help."

"Besides that Matt, you did throw the first punch." said Gabumon.

Matt still felt he was in the right. TK shared his brother's resentment. Davis insulted their family, and Matt was trying to defend their honor. Joe suggested Matt go straight home and get some rest. "Believe me, you need It. I know what I'm talking about" he warned him.

Matt tried to protest, but Sora wouldn't hear of it, and she agreed to take him straight home. Biyomon and Gabumon followed her through the nearby portal.

As for Veemon, he was still feeling very low. Still shaky the way Davis had acted, and yelling at him. All he kept on seeing was the way Davis kicked the Digi-Egg of Friendship away, and said he hated him and everyone else.

Mimi and Palemon approached him. "Veemon… don't worry, it'll be okay." said Palemon.

Veemon shook his head "No, no it's not, and it won't be. You shaw him- he doesn't care anymore, and the Digi-Egg is losht in the ocean. I'll never turn into Raidramon again!"

Mimi and Palemon understood this; just like when they and the others had to give up their crests, costing their Digimon the ability to Digiolve into Ultimate. This time, it didn't look as if Veemon could ever get that part of him back unless by some miracle the Digi-Egg was retrieved.

"Losing a friend and a part of you literally; what could be worse?" Mimi muttered softly

Izzy lost Davis' signal, for it became obvious he had shut off his D3. "Maybe he went home?" Tentomon asked, but everyone agreed with Izzy "I'm sure that's the last place he would have gone.

"I'm really worried about him." said Joe "He's liable to give himself a heart attack or a fatal stroke if he doesn't calm down soon."

"That's the least of his problems." said Gomamon "He's out there all alone with no Digimon. What if he runs into more danger?"

Hearing this only made Ken bolt upright! "We should go find him." he said sharply. Wormon agreed with him, but all the others, especially Veemon, TK, Kari, even Yolei were not comfortable with the idea considering what just happened. "Are you crazy?" snapped TK "You saw the mood he was in; he won't listen you or any of us. What if he tries to beat up you next?"

"He's got a point, Ken." Kari agreed "I think we should just leave him alone for a while like we thought a while ago."

"You think? More like you just don't care." said Ken. He sounded really deep, and very upset. "Davis wouldn't attack anyone without reason, not that I'm saying he's in the right, but we all haven't exactly been all that nice to him, especially you and TK."

TK and Kari felt confused. "Yeah, he's been nothing but a jerk ever since Kari and I started dating." said TK "He's got to learn to grow up." Kari agreed.

The others gasped softly at those remarks, even Tai and especially Veemon, but Ken clenched his fists and was shaking softly. "So you're saying it's all his fault this is happening? He's just acted like anyone else would in his situation. I know what it feels like too well."

He was reminded of all the times his brother Sam got all the attention and treated him badly for looking at his Digivice. He made the wish… his brother died… his hate increased and he became the Digimon Emperor, and when he gave it all up, Davis was the only one willing to give him a chance; a real friend!

"Ken, stop!" cried Yolei.

"No, I won't!" growled Ken. He sounded both angry and ready to cry at the same time. "Oh, Ken!" cried Wormon. "TK… Kari…" Ken hesitated, and then he swiftly turned and yelled right at them "I think what Davis said about you two is right; you're nothing but a pair of selfish, bratty kids!"

TK felt angry, and Kari felt shocked. Gatomon and Patamon were furious that he said such a thing and demanded he apologize. "How can you defend Davis like this?" Gatomon snapped.

"You saw what he did to Matt. He's just being a stubborn, crybaby jerk."

Hearing this made Veemon finally start to see all the things Davis had told him. _"Friendship and trust goes both ways. I can't do all the work myself. They have to do their part." _Veemon was starting to feel maybe Davis was right all along about the others, and to think… he had just acted the same way by scolding him and yelling at him. He dashed away from the gang and began to hop along the rocks scaling the cliff. "Where are you going?" Hawkmon called to him "To find Davish!" Veemon called back and he disappeared out of sight.

Ken and Wormon wanted to go after him, but it was getting pretty late and they all had homework to do and dinner with families, this put Ken in one of his stressful strains. He didn't want to leave the Digital-World knowing Davis was all alone, but he knew how emotional his mom got when he wasn't home on time.

Kari and TK however, scoffed and both felt ready to leave. TK still wanted to check up on Matt and see how he was holding. "Knowing my dad, he's probably throwing a temper."

"I'll come with you for support." Kari said, but none of the others liked the way they were acting, Tai and Agumon stepped right in front of them blocking their way to the TV-portal. "How can you two just leave like this?" Agumon sneered.

"Didn't you hear us? We want to check on Matt." TK sneered.

"And I have a test to study for." said Kari.

"Kari, aren't you even the least bit worried about Davis and the mood he's in." said Tai "You know what, fine. You go; I'll stay for a while and account the nearby areas."

The others all decided to head home, but they weren't acting like TK and Kari, if anything they were starting to agree with what Ken had said about them, but Kari and TK just ignored them as did Gatomon and Patamon, and they left.

"If there's time after dinner, I'll come back and help." said Ken.

"Me too." added Yolei.

Cody wouldn't be able to too as his bedtime was earlier, but he agreed to keep in touch with everyone. The others agreed too. They just hoped nothing else would set Davis off like that again.

…

TK and Kari stopped at Matt's place to check on him. TK was surprised to see his father was sleeping very deeply on the couch, but he could tell that he did have a bad fit, and he always fell asleep after getting it out of his system. He had obviously heard of what Davis did to Matt.

Matt was sleeping too, and Sora was still there, with a bandage on her leg from when Davis had pushed her, with Biyomon and Gabumon. "He's okay." Sora whispered. TK felt a bit better, but both he and Kari were still very angry at the way Ken and Tai had spoken to them, but TK silently blamed Davis for this.

Kari and Gatomon stayed awhile, until Sora and Biyomon decided to head home. TK wanted to stay a little longer and look after him. "It's all right, TK. I can look after him." said Gabumon

"Thanks, but I'd rather stay. I'll go home later."

The girls agreed to leave him, and Kari kissed TK before leaving with Sora, but TK was thinking of something else than just his brother. Patamon hated it when TK got that look in his eyes and had a feeling he knew what was coming.

…

Kari and Sora walked down the street with their Digimon, both of them were still plenty angry with how Davis had acted, despite Matt throwing the first punch. Both of them still felt Davis was more in the wrong, but Biyomon was not really convinced anymore. "You said you were going to try and talk to him, but you weren't exactly friendly from the start. You just yelled at him right off the bat."

"Who wouldn't have?" said Gatomon "You saw what Davis and Veemon did to that Scorpiomon."

Kari asked them both to knock it off. "I really do not what to talk or hear about this." The others could tell Kari was still very upset. Luckily for her, Sora reached the street she had to cross to get home. "Good night, Kari." she said, but Kari didn't even answer her and just continued to walk down the street and all the way to her apartment.

"Hi, honey." Her mom said "Tough day at school."

"No… just a tough day in general." Kari said as she walked into her room to begin studying, and Gatomon curled up on her bed for a small catnap, but Kari found it difficult to concentrate on her work. She kept on hearing Ken scolding her and TK, and even Tai. She sat back in her chair and sighed softly to herself; "They're wrong." Davis was lucky for her to at least consider him a friend, but obviously that wasn't good enough for him that he had to act like a stupid little jerk and attack all his other friends too…!

Kari was thinking about it so deeply, that she fell asleep in her chair, and began dreaming.

…

She found herself driving with TK in his brand new car. "But, TK you can't drive, you're only fourteen."

"I know, but this is a dream; anything can happen here."

Kari decided to buy it and just relaxed, and she found out they were on their way to picnic with the whole gang to celebrate their dating. Even Davis was there, but he didn't seem very thrilled. He spent most of the time keeping to quietly himself, not wanting to ruin anyone's good time. He kept nice and quiet and tried his best not let his emotions show, especially not when Kari and TK kissed or flirted with one another, especially by feeding each other the foods, or deliberately trying to make Davis feel jealous.

Then it came time to toast to the happy couple, and everyone gave their cheers, but all Davis did was raise his glass not saying a thing, mostly because he didn't know what to say, or he just couldn't toast to the couple knowing it mean he would never have a chance with Kari again, Kari and TK didn't take this well.

When it was time to go home, Davis got into TK's car. "What are you doing here?" Kari asked near sternly. "You promised you'd give me a ride home."

Kari didn't remember that, but TK did; though he too was not very keen on having to take him after the way he had acted at the picnic. As they drove along through town, they both noticed Davis was still acting a bit down, but not directing it towards them.

"You can stop any time now." he said suddenly.

Davis turned to "What?"

"You know what he means, Davis." said Kari "And you could've been more cheerful at the party instead of grumping and groaning."

"What did you expect me to do?"

"I don't know, try being happy for us." sneered TK.

"Oh, sure, be happy that you two are together and I won't have a chance anymore. Look I did my best not to cause trouble, all right? Don't give me grief."

TK screeched on the breaks. "Get out!"

"What…?"

"OUT!" shouted TK.

Kari turned and gave Davis angry look and growled "Davis, just leave. I've had about enough of your crybaby attitude!"

Davis angrily got out of the car and TK drove away. He and Kari sighed in relief that he was gone, but sudden they could hear a siren wailing. They looked back and saw a police car coming up behind them, and the cop giving the signal for TK to pull over. "What now?" he groaned as he pulled over to the side.

The cop stepped out from his care and made his way towards TK and Kari. "Is something wrong?" TK asked.

"License, please." he sneered deeply. TK reached into his wallet and handed him his licenses, but the cop shook his head "Not your driver's license, your Friend license, and yours too, young lady. I'm with the Friendship Patrol, and you two are in a whole lot of trouble."

Kari and TK could barely believe this, especially Kari. She never heard of a Friend License, but apparently she and TK did have two license cards certifying them as actual friends. "What did we do?" Kari asked.

"Don't act dumb, Kari!" snapped Davis as she approached the car. He looked out of breath as he had jogged a little ways to catch up with them. The cop had seen everything that happened and followed TK. "Friendship code section seven, paragraph three: A friend who is feeling down and troubled should be handled with sympathy and understanding. You both were yelling at this young man and just threw him out of the car. I'm giving you both a citation."

He handed them both their tickets and Davis smirked softly. To him, it was nice finally seeing them both getting their comeuppances. "Look, can't we talk this over." Kari said "We were just upset; he was being a sourpuss all day."

"Yeah, you should have seen him at the picnic." added TK. Davis and the cop just gazed at one another and the cop began to write down two more tickets. "What?!" snapped Kari "Why are getting more tickets?"

"Section nine, paragraph four: Putting the blame on someone else for your wrong doings." sneered the cop "One more violation, and you two are going to lose your licenses."

"Really…?" Davis said with a cheeky look in his eyes. Kari and TK gave him gestures begging him not to, but Davis said to the cop "These two constantly flirt in front of me deliberately to make me to make me jealous."

"That should do it!"

Kari and TK gasped as the cop gave them final tickets. "Both your friend licenses are suspending, pending recertification at Friendship School!"

"I don't believe this!" Kari snapped, and the cop gave both her and TK copies of _"How to Be and Treat a Real Friend.";_ "These are your manuals. Study it, know it, and be prepared to be tested on it tomorrow at 8 A.M."

TK bashed his head in frustration on the steering wheel, and Kari just gazed at Davis, but he turned away from her. "Come on, I'll give you a ride home." said the cop.

"Thanks. That's a being a real friend."

"Yes… it is." the cop replied, sneering sarcastically and disgusted at TK and Kari.

Since Kari was dreaming, in a bright flash of light, she and TK suddenly found themselves at the Police Station the next day, and attending the course _"Friendship ED" _and apparently, they were not the only two who were in the class. Several other teenagers, a couple of little kids, and even two groups of adults were in the class. All sharing their stories of why they got hauled in…

-Arguments that got out of hand.

-Refusing to share with one another.

-Breaking a promise to a friend without notifying they couldn't keep it.

…and various other infractions on the friendship code Kari never heard of even in her dizziest dreams. "Having a license to be a friend? This is crazy!"

"Yeah, but that's the law." said one of the classmates.

"Well, I'm not going to get tossed in here again." said another as he held up the manual "I read this thing cover-to-cover."

"Me too..."

"Me three…"

One of the others looked at Kari and TK "How about you two?" but Kari and TK hadn't studied the manual at all. "We've had friends all our lives. We don't need some book telling us how to act." said TK.

"I agree." added Kari "Whoever heard of Friendship by the Book?"

The other classmates didn't feel the same, and had bad feelings about them both. Soon the examiner came in. "Good morning everyone. Will you all take your places please?" Everyone sat the desks spread out. Kari and TK sat next to each other of course.

"I am Officer Friendslee. I am the official examiner here and a skilled and wonderful friend to five… and I am _very_ disappointed in _all of you!"_

The class all groaned and hung their heads low.

"However, I believe there is no such thing as bad friendships, only bad friends. I'm sure that all of you can earn your licenses back simply by applying from what you've learned by studying the manual."

He then walked around handing everyone test sheets. "We are going to begin with a simple ratings test of fifty multiple choices. These will help me judge your friendship skills better and will show me just what kind of person you are. You have thirty minutes starting now."

Everyone quietly filled out their papers, but Kari and TK took their time. Some of the questions included…

"Your friend is mad at you, and is acting rather coldly and silent because of something you did, and the problem persists over time, Do you:

A: Try to talk with them calmly and quietly about it.

B: Leave them alone to give them time to calm down.

C: Give them a piece of your mind and tell them to grow up.

Kari was only allowed to answer one. So, she checked off "A"

Another question was…

"You and your friend have had a big fight and you are losing your tempers. Do you:"

A: Try to talk calmly and quietly and maybe work out the problem. him, and call him names.

B: Smack your friend, yell at

C: Quietly walk away and wait until you both cool down then try again.

Kari answered "C"

Thirty minutes later, the tests were handed in, and then came the next part of the course. "All you have each been issued with one of our specialized Robot-Friends." said Friendslee "We are now going to simulate a series of events between friends and see how you react to them."

All the other classmates did very well with their robot partners. They shared, they talked nicely, and they didn't once act nasty mean when it didn't seem necessary, but Kari and TK were in for big surprises. Both of their robots sounded like, and acted just like Davis did.

Kari's even acted like he did when Davis tried to ask her out many times, and she refused, not willing to even give him one chance. TK's robot acted quiet and silent towards him. "Hey, don't give me that." TK snapped, but the robot would not respond, not wishing to talk to or even look at him for the way he acted so mean.

Kari found herself actually picturing Davis instead of the robot being there. "I'm sorry, Davis… I uh… mean…"

"Sorry is not good enough Kari. I've done my best, but it was never enough for you. You always tease me; you deliberately try and make me jealous, you never gave me one chance for a date when things could have gone better than you thought, and what really gets me, is I've done so much for everyone, and you hard appreciate or respect me at all. Is a little respect to much to ask, or are you too busy being a selfish brat to realize that?"

Kari felt her anger rising, and she slapped Davis' face, actually the robot, and knocked him to the floor. The entire class gasped, and Friendslee immediately stormed up to her "Ms. Kamiya, what in the name was that?!"

Kari gasped when she realized what she had done. She tried to apologize "He was yelling at me, and calling me selfish and bratty."

TK tried to vouch for her, but Friendsless was not impressed, he had been watching TK's poor performance as well. "Ms. Kamiya… Mr. Takaishi… Normally for such reprehensible displays I would deduct points, BUT NEITHER OF YOU HAVE ANY!"

Kari and TK winced, and didn't understand how they could possibly have zeros. Friendsless handed back their written tests, and Kari was shocked to see her answers had mysteriously been changed. She answered C instead of A, and B instead of C. "What's going on?" she asked in confusion.

"I'll tell you what's going on; YOU BOTH FAIL!" shouted Friendslee "You can take the test again in thirty days. Until then, your licenses are suspended, and that means absolutely no friends. You got me?!"

Kari and TK nodded, and before kicking them out, Friendslee handed them both copies of the Friendship Manual demanding they study it. "Maybe it'll teach you two some respect on how to be real friends!"

All the other classmates, who passed the test glared at them angrily like hissing snakes ready to strike. TK was plenty angry feeling that the entire system was messed up, but Kari was feeling, embarrassed, ashamed, and almost heartbroken of what people were starting to see her as.

Another white flash flared, and Kari suddenly found herself at home and throwing her manual angrily on the floor. "Why is this happening? Why are they only picking on me?"

"I think you already know why that is, Kari." Tai said, and he looked very stern at her.

Kari looked like she was about to totally lose it "Tai, Davis is being jerk. He's always being grumpy and miserable, and he needs to learn to grow up."

Tai leaned forward "So what? That doesn't excuse your behaviour. He's only like this because you and the others haven't exactly been the ideal friends to him, and instead of at least trying to make an effort to make things a little better, you make things worse. I'm not trying to defend Davis. You're right, he does have to grow up, but the way I see it you need to do likewise, maybe even more than him!"

He then stormed off because he had a date with Jun, leaving Kari to sulk angrily on the couch, until she decided to get up and go out. "Where are you going?" asked Gatomon. "I'm not just going to sit around here all day. I'm going to the park; maybe I can hang out with the others, or even call TK for a lunch date."

She opened the door to leave and was surprised to see the cop that arrested her the other day standing there. "And just where do you think you're going, young lady?" he sneered.

"What are you doing here?"

The cop, still looking down at her walked into her apartment "I've been assigned to this residence to make sure you don't act like a friend without a license."

"Wait! You're saying I can't hang out with my other friends, not even my boyfriend?"

"What part of _"your license is suspended" _and _"no being a friend"_ don't you understand?" the cop sneered, and then he bent over to the floor and picked up Kari's manual "I believe this belongs to you. Start studying!"

Kari grumbled and snapped "This is absolutely crazy!"

"Yeah, kid it is; it's crazy that kids like you get even have friends, and it's crazy that I have to be here in your face until you learn better! You selfish brat…!"

"But… I'm not a…"

"Selfish brat...! Selfish brat…! Selfish brat…!"

Kari heard him scold her over and over, and she found herself stepped backwards inch by inch until she hit the wall and fell right through it, spinning through the darkness created by her shame and blindness and she could hear everyone constantly calling her a brat!

…

…and she woke up, after gasping hard!

"Kari?" groaned Gatomon as she woke up from her nap and saw Kari with a face as if she had seen a ghost. She then got up from her desk chair and walked over to the big mirror on her dresser drawers and looked at herself, and she began to remember all the things she did and every word she had said to and about Davis.

_"If he wants to be a whiny dick, let him."_

_"Let's face it, he's a jerk, and if he can't accept I made my choice, he can go to hell for all I care."_

_"That's enough, Davis! You had no right to punch my boyfriend like that, and you owe him an apology."_

_"I can't believe you! You're obviously not the guy I thought you were, and you wonder why I choose TK over you. He's twice the guy you'll ever be!"_

_"He's got to learn to grow up."_

Kari fell to her knees and bowed her head shamefully at the floor and began to cry, finally realizing what a miserable brat she really was and Davis did, in a way, have every right to be as angry as he was now.

Gatomon didn't know what to say or do, but she could hardly believe Kari was like this now.


	5. Raging Rivals

**_Author's notes:_**

**_Hold onto your seats and DO NOT read this chapter before bed. It's going to wind your keys so tight you'll want to take off like a rocket! _**

**CHAPTER FIVE**

TK had been watching over Matt for a while, but he couldn't fight it any longer. His anger was at an all-time high and his hatred towards Davis couldn't have been any worse. With Matt and his father still asleep and Gabumon too, TK decided now was the right time.

"Where are you going?" asked Patamon.

"Shh!" hissed TK "I'm going to the Digital World. I'm going to find that jerk and we're going set everything straight once and for all."

Patamon felt his heart skip a beat. "No, TK don't!"

"Don't try and talk me out of it!" TK sneered "I'm not going to put with this any longer. He's insulted me and my family. He hurt my brother, and now he's getting everyone else crazy. Someone's got to teach him a lesson and it may as well be me!"

Patamon agreed that although Davis was a jerk and being very bad, TK's idea was not a good one, so he decided to go along with him just in hopes to keep things from getting heated up. So they warped away, and Patamon Digivolved to Angemon and off they went. _"I'm going to find you, Davis!" _TK thought to himself _"And when I do, I'm going to put you right even if I have to break you in half!"_

…

Kari ultimately realized she only had one choice now. She had to go to the Digital World herself, find Davis, and hopefully try and apologize to him. Gatomon wasn't sure if Kari was feeling okay upstairs. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I have to, Gatomon." Kari said "If I don't I don't know what's going to happen."

"But what if Davis won't accept your apology?"

Kari was aware of that possibility, but this time she was going to try and hold it together. She wanted to at least try, and nothing was going to stop her. She and Gatomon were ready to warp, when they were stopped by the doorbell ringing.

It was Yolei Ken and Cody, and all their Digimon, and it turned out Ken managed to talk Yolei and Cody into Kari's idea of apologizing to Davis and at least trying to make it up to him. Cody's grandfather even let him out of the house, knowing he was off to set things right with a friend. "Wait… what about TK?" asked Cody "Shouldn't we tell him too?"

"I tried…" Yolei said "He's not at home."

"Maybe he's still at Matt's." said Ken.

Kari tried to call him on his cell-phone, but she got the recorded message saying the number wasn't available. Kari's blood turned cold. "Oh, no…!" she peeped, and when the others asked what. "I think I know what he's doing." Once she told them of how she noticed TK's anger and hatred at Davis' actions had been. They all felt shivers run down their spines and could easily guess TK had run off on his own to find Davis. They all dashed into Kari's room like lightning and quickly warped into the Digital World and digivolved all their Digimon so they could fly. They had to find Davis before TK did, and they didn't want to begin to think of how serious things would get if he found him first.

…

Davis was really upset, but he didn't know if he was more upset with himself or with the others. "How has it come to this?" he asked himself for the umpteenth time. "Now Veemon's gone too; I've lost it all. My home, my friends, my family, even one of my Digi-Eggs."

Now he was not only lonely, but it was getting dark so he was cold and hungry too, but he didn't dare go back to the real world, and he didn't bring his wallet with him so he couldn't check into any of the Digimon restaurants. "Man, I need some food!" he groaned, and there off in the distance he could see many fruit trees. His eyes shined like the stars and his mouth hung open watering "Score!"

He ran over to the orchards and hastily began to pick and stuff his face with the fruit, completely not realizing that he wasn't alone. Suddenly, Davis heard the bushes rustles followed by a loud roaring sound scaring him half to death as a gang of two Tryannomon and two Triceramon emerged from the brambles.

"Uh, oh…! This can't be good."

The four dinos looked very angry for Davis trespassing into their orchard of fruit. "Think you can just waltz in here and take whatever you want?!" growled a Tyrannomon.

"I don't think we should give him the chance." added a Triceramon.

Davis couldn't believe everyone he always came across was grumpy and misunderstanding. "Look, I was just hungry okay, and you got plenty of trees to go around."

The four dinos only looked angrier, and Davis felt his legs quaking. He didn't have Veemon with him this time, and two champions and two ultimate Digimon facing him down. He tried to run, but the dinos leapt in his every escape route, completely surrounding him.

They were moving in and licking their chops for a nice dinner, when suddenly they got blasted all around from above.

**_"TERRA FORCE…!"_** shouted Wargreymon as he let the bullies have another series of warning shots all around the dinos. Davis looked up and could see Tai on Wargreymon, and Veemon was with them "RUN, DAVISH!" Veemon shouted.

Davis nodded and ran past the dinos as fast as he could. The dinos tried to chase after him, but Wargreymon leapt down from the air and Tai hopped off him. "You bullies better back off!" snarled Tai.

"…Unless you want that meal of yours to be your last!" Wargreymon said while flexing his muscles in a threatening way. Knowing they couldn't stand up to a Mega, the dinos ran away like cowards. "And don't come back!" Wargreymon thundered.

Veemon nodded angrily, and then he and the others turned back to face Davis, and Davis didn't seem too thrilled to see them. "Um… Davish…" Veemon said as he approached him, but Davis inched away from him, obviously still upset with what happened before. "What have you come back?" he asked softly.

"Easy, Davis…" Tai said "We don't want to make things worse."

Davis still inched away. The guys could tell there wasn't going to be much getting through to him, but suddenly they heard heavy footsteps coming towards them. They grew stronger and louder every step, and suddenly, three Mammothmon approached them all and they seemed pretty steamed, for the way their fours friends had run off all scared.

"Who do you think you boys are, coming in here and picking on our friends?"

Tai tried to explain, but the Mammothmon were all as reasonable as they were friendly; not very. Tai and Wargreymon decided to stay and hold them back "Davis, you and Veemon get out of here. Go!"

Davis and Veemon almost preferred to stay, but they ran for it knowing Wargreymon could handle the three Ultimate brutes, or so they thought. So Veemon Digivolved into Ex-Veemon, and he and Davis flew away to safety leaving Tai and Wargreymon to stare down the angry brutes.

"Come and get some!" growled Wargreymon.

The three Mammothmon charged forth and shouted **_"TUSK CRUSHER!"_** Wargreymon stood where he was thinking he could take them, yet they rammed into him and sent him sailing backward and crashing into several trees, knocking them over in the process. "Wargreymon!" cried Tai.

The Mammothmon sneered wickedly at him as Wargreymon got back up. "Tai...! They're a lot stronger than they seem."

Tai turned to gaze at the three brutes and figured they obviously had higher experience points, making them strong enough to take on a Mega, but the fight would actually be even. "We'll just have to give it all we got then.

Wargreymon agreed, but the Mammothmon were growing angrier and they all charged forth to continue the fight.

…

Davis and Ex-Veemon landed in a meadow just a mile away from the forest. "I think we're safe now." panted Ex-Veemon. Davis felt relieved, and he hopped down, he had to ask. "Why did you help me? I thought you hated me, just like all the others."

Ex-Veemon's features changed to nervous, but he remembered and he felt very ashamed with himself about what happened before. "Davis, listen to me… please." and before Davis could refuse him, he quickly said "…I understand now."

Davis stood still and silent for a moment "…What?"

Ex-Veemon explained what had happened after he had left and all the nasty things many of others had said about him, and hearing about the way they acted towards them both as well. Especially the way Patamon and Gatomon insulted him and called him nasty things, and although Ex-Veemon still didn't tolerate or approve of Davis' behaviour either, "I can at least understand now why you did what you did."

Davis didn't know what to do or say. He just stood there with a puzzled, lost gaze, and his head slowly tilted down and he gazed down at his shoes. He never felt so confused on what to do in his life, but deep down he knew he couldn't ever apologize as it wouldn't get the Digi-Egg of Friendship back.

"Davis, I'm… I'm sorry for what I said."

Davis felt his insides trying to force him to smile sadly; nonetheless he walked up to his friend and hugged him warmly without saying anything. Ex-Veemon hugged Davis back gently, careful not to crush him.

Suddenly, after they separated, Davis was grabbed from behind by TK. "Hey there, Davis…" he said before socking him hard in the face and sending him skidding across the ground. "Davis!" cried Ex-Veemon, and Davis looked up with a look of fury on his face. "What the hell is up with you?!" snarled Davis.

"Don't you play dumb with me, you little brat!" growled TK and lunged at Davis, tackling him to the ground "You're going to answer to everything you've done to me, to my brother, to your folks, and everyone else!" and he rammed several more punches into Davis's face. "You wanted respect, well here's some!"

Ex-Veemon wasn't going to stand for this dashed over to try and knock TK off of him, when Angemon leapt down from the skies in front of him. "Don't you dare hurt TK!" he growled.

"You…!" growled Ex-Veemon. "So, you're in on this too, huh?"

"No, I'm not!" protested Angemon and he picked up both the boys and split them apart, holding them each by the collar far from each other. "Stop this, both of you!"

"I'll tear you into pieces!" roared Davis as he struggled to break free.

"Let me go!" growled TK. "No!" shouted Angemon "Davis may be a jerk and all, but is it really worth it."

Ex-Veemon felt his insides broiling with rage when heard the word _"Jerk"_

"Yes he is!" TK said.

"Bring it on, Takeru!" growled Davis "I can take you on. I've been waiting for this for a long time!"

"You be quiet!" Angemon snarled at him "You've acted like nothing but a sore loser and a miserable brat for long enough!"

Ex-Veemon gritted his teeth and was breathing furiously and he fired his **_"VEE-LASER!" _**Hitting Angemon right in the chest and knocking him away, and he dropped the two boys onto the ground. The boys looked up and watched Ex-Veemon stomp his way over to Angemon. "I've had just about you and you insulting my friend!" he growled.

Angemon got up and glared at him deep in the eyes, but before he could say a thing Ex-Veemon snapped "Let's do this now!"

"What?"

"You heard me. We're going to settle this once and for all. Now Digivolve into Magna-Angemon and lets brawl! I can take you on and you know I can."

Angemon couldn't believe what he was saying and chuckled "I only wish Angewomon was here to see this, and you wonder why she chose me over you."

Ex-Veemon snuffed "I'm not fighting for Angewomon, and to tell you the truth… I don't think I even care for her much anymore."

He explained how he had already pushed her out of his mind long ago, and though he still had feelings for her then, now he came to realize just how mean she really could be the way she insulted Davis many times. "I'm not fighting for Angewomon. I'm fighting for you. You've done nothing but bust my chops, get in my way, and overshadow me with your good looks and so called hope, well now it's personal. So let's go, unless you're too scared because you know I can beat you."

Angemon gripped his staff tightly in anger, and TK decided "Let's teach both these punks a lesson." and he activated his D3 and his crest magic.

_"Angemon Digivolve to…_

_…Magna-Angemon!"_

"You have your wish, Ex-Veemon, and you will pay dearly for your insults. I hope you realize what you have gotten into."

Ex-Veemon smirked wickedly and then flexed his muscles. "Let's do this!"

They both stood at their spots like cowboys ready to draw, and then suddenly they dashed towards one another and zoomed past one another completely, and they stood still again. Then suddenly, Ex-Veemon gasped and fell to his knees. "No!" cried Davis.

"Yes!"  
shouted TK.

Magna-Angemon turned and moved toward his opponent, but right at the last few feet, Ex-Veemon, not really hurt and faking his injury, sprung back with his feet and head-bashed him right in the gut sending him skidding across the ground. "Guess you're not as good as you used to be."

Magna-Angemon sprung back up on his feet and glared at him growing like a bear. Ex-Veemon did the same, and they charged at each other, colliding hard and exchanging punched, kicks. **_"CRITICAL CRUNCH!"_** roared Ex-Veemon as he sank his huge teeth into his rival's leg.

"Come on, Magna-Angemon crush him!" shouted TK.

"…NEVER!" Davis roared as he lunged at TK, crashing into him and they both rolled down the hill. They both hit the bottom and got up glaring furiously at each other. "You wanted to go, bring it!"

"You got it!" TK thundered as he charged again, but Davis caught his fists and they ended up struggling. "You're going to learn to accept things a quit being such a crybaby over not getting your way."

Davis was really getting annoyed with all this ignoring his feelings, or that he actually had feelings. "I wouldn't know, I've never gotten my way before, especially because of you!" and he punched him hard in the face, splitting his lip.

TK got up quickly and charged at Davis, tackling him to the ground and giving him numerous punches in the ribs. "Kari chose me!" he snarled "You're going to accept that even if I have to beat on you all night, you miserable cunt!"

Davis felt his rage peak in a split second and he kicked TK ever so hard in his stomach knocking him way back, and then proceeded to kick him numerous times. "You stole any chances I had with Kari! You use me to make yourself look good!"

TK suddenly kicked Davis in the chest sending him back, and giving him the chance to get back on his feet. Both boys were so insanely mad at each other and oh so determined to make the other suffer, they couldn't feel the pain from their injuries that much.

While they continued to fight, so did their Digimon. Magna-Angemon discovered that Ex-Veemon was more powerful than he thought, confirming Izzy's experience point theory, but he wasn't willing to give up, and he punched Ex-Veemon in the face, but then got kicked hard in the chest- both of them knocking themselves away from the other and crashing down hard.

"Had enough yet?" growled Ex-Veemon as he got up.

"No I haven't; **_EXCALIBUR!"_** He held his sword up high, and Ex-Veemon flexed hits shining claws, and they dashed straight at one another clashing and parrying like real swordsmen, but Ex-Veemon seemed to have the better advantage, especially when he blocked Excalibur with his right claw and used his left to bash Magna-Angemon hard, and sent him rolling along the ground.

Magna-Angemon got up swiftly **_"SOUL VANISHER!"_** he sent his power straight at Ex-Veemon, who was barely able to dodge it. The blast created a huge explosion and still knocked him over hard onto his back. He got up quickly.

"You're even more pathetic than I thought you were!" Magna-Angemon sneered.

"I know you are, but what am I." Ex-Veemon retorted. Magna-Angemon growled and charged forth and their fighting continued.

Meanwhile, TK had Davis pinned to the ground and was trying to strangle him just like Matt did on the beach, and this time there were no rocks for Davis to clunk him with. "For my family!" growled TK "For my brother, and for the rest of the gang you hurt, you miserable prick!"

By this point, Davis had reached his full levels of hate and anger that he was able to wretch his arms free from the pinning, and he grabbed TK's wrists and actually found the strength to pull them off his neck, giving him the chance to head-bash TK's face again knocking him off.

TK glared at the other man who seemed to be completely changed- blazing with anger. He was practically some hulking creep. TK tried to punch and kick him, but Davis even flinch. He couldn't feel the blow from TK's attacks at all. TK quivered in fear, especially when Davis grabbed him by the collar and actually lifted him up off the ground. He punched him hard in the face with his other fist, then again, and again, each time more forceful than the last.

The two Digimon were still brawling as well. Magna-Angemon swung his blade, but finally fed up with him, Ex-Veemon actually caught the sword in his claws **_"CRITICAL CRUNCH!" _**and actually shattered it in his jaws, much to his rival's horror. He angrily sheathed the remains of his shattered weapon. "That's it! I've had enough!" he thundered **_"SOUL VANISHER!"_** and fired his shot right at Ex-Veemon, hitting him very hard and making him sink to his knees for real, shaking and groaning in pain.

Magna-Angemon approached him, not expecting him to strike back. "You've lost! You fought valiantly though, I'll give you that much. Now, we end this." He was planning to strike Ex-Veemon hard enough so he would De-Digivolve. He charged up as much power as he could for one final assault and prepared to fire. **_"SOUL VANISHER…!" _**but Ex-Veemon swiftly opened his eyes and zipped out of the way at the very last second, causing the blast to miss.

"Huh?" cried Magna-Angemon, and he was suddenly grabbed from behind as Ex-Veemon tried to strangle him. "I'm not done with you, not yet!" They two began to fist brawl, but Magna-Angemon was now slacking miserably due to his using too much power, and he let his guard down giving Ex-Veemon the chance to slash him clear across the chest. Sparks and shocking jolt waves surrounded him as he flipped over backwards, but landed on his feet.

"Now it's time!" growled Ex-Veemon, and he stood where he was, and roared loudly up at the sky, and began to glow as he focussed all his power which he hadn't used too much of for one final assault. He looked like a Power Ranger doing its finisher move. **_"…VEE… LASER!"_** and he fired.

"HARGH… HARGH… HARGH…!" Sending the biggest and brightest blast he had ever conjured, hitting Magna-Angemon full force. He screeched and roared as he felt his energy draining out as his body was enveloped in bright flashes, jolts of energy, and small sparks.

TK and Davis looked up. "No…!" cried TK. Davis said nothing and didn't even let TK go, and everyone just continued to watch as Magna-Angemon's body went up in a huge explosion!

So big, the others, on their way, could see it from afar. "Look there!" cried Angewomon. Kari felt her stomach turn in circles. "Please no…!" she begged softly, and everyone flew in faster.

As the dust from the explosion cleared, there was poor little Patamon lying on the ground twitching and covered in dust and bruises. "I… I don't… believe it!" he groaned ever so softly.

Ex-Veemon De-Digivolved into Veemon and fell onto his bottom panting heavily. "I… did it! I beat Patamon!"

TK couldn't believe it a bit, and then Davis yanked on his collar and gazed at him so furiously and sneered right at him ever so deeply and softly. "You… lose!" and he just dropped his injured rival to the ground. His anger now fading and the pain of his injuries really getting to him, but when he saw the others flying towards them, and Veemon realized they had to split, and they both managed to sum up the last of their strengths and run away into the darkness where the others couldn't see them. All they found were TK and Patamon all battered and beaten.

"TK!" cried Kari

"Patamon!" cried Angewomon.

There was no doubt that they were beat up by Davis and Veemon, but it was defiantly clear that TK was the one who started all this. Luckily, they brought first aid, but all were very angry with them both, especially Kari. She resisted every urge to smack her boyfriend, since he was already hurt enough. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" she growled "I asked you not to do this!"

TK gazed at his girlfriend as if she was a hissing cobra. His bruised jaw ached as he spoke. "Kari… I…"

"Save it!" Kari sneered at him "I really don't know what to think of you right now."

"That goes double for me on you." Angewomon said to Patamon. Patamon felt deeply ashamed with himself, but TK felt outraged, but none of the others seemed to care for his inexcusable actions. Thanks to him, Davis and Veemon gave them the slip when they came to apologize. "Nice going, TK." growled Ken "You've probably got Davis so angry, we may never get to apologize to him now."

"Maybe it's not too late." said Stingmon "Maybe they haven't gotten too far."

"We can split up and search for them." added Aquilamon, and the others all agreed, but suddenly they could hear rustling in the tall grasses. "Did anyone else hear that?" asked Yolei.

"I heard it." said Cody "What is it?"

"I don't know, but somethin's near alright." said Digmon, and then he could feel the ground beneath his feet vibrating softly. "Whoa! Everyone get outta here!"

Everyone gasped in confusion. That's when huge black cables emerged from the ground and began to ensnare them all one at a time; Digimon, and Digi-Destined! Some of them got ensnared immediately, and the cables began to shock the Digimon horribly causing them to De-Digivolve, and their partners to fall unconscious.

Angewomon and Kari managed to evade the cables at first, but more and more cables seemed to emerge, and Kari got ensnared by her leg. "Kari, no!" cried Angewomon, and she tried to blast the cables with her powers, but couldn't even scratch them. Kari told her to fly to safety, and Angewomon ultimately saw no other option but to fly up super high where the cables couldn't reach her.

Angewomon hid behind some clouds, and saw a dark figure emerge from a nearby tree. He chuckled warmly as he loomed over all the unconscious victims his dark cables had ensnared. He spoke with an Elvis-like voice. "Well, well… lookie who's in the house now. It's been a while, but better late than never." He clapped his hands, which made a metallic sound, and the cables dragged the victims under the ground and into the hill, obviously meaning there was a secret base below. The strange picked up fallen cables that missed their shots and actually smothered them saying "Who's daddy's little darlin's huh? Who done a good job?" then he himself entered the base through a secret entrance beneath the tree he leapt down from—he just pulled on the biggest branch and vanished.

Angewomon realized she would need help, and as much as it pained her, she had to find Davis and Veemon.

…

As for Davis and Veemon, both of them, unaware of the events, were struggling to keep going and put as much distance between them and the others, but the pain from their injuries combined with their exhaustions from fighting really got to them, and they suddenly collapsed in the middle of nowhere… or so!

They were both suddenly found by two figures, and dragged off to a nearby cottage.

**_Author's Notes:_**

**_Those of you wondering who that dark guy was…_**

**_…Uh-huh… He is in the house!_**


	6. The Heart or the Hate?

**CHAPTER SIX**

The gang soon awoke to find they were all locked in solid steel cages with padded bottoms like mattresses, but solid at the very bottom, and that they were in a dark cavern, with torches lit on the walls. "Where are we?" asked Ken.

"Your guess is as good as mine." said Wormon.

Yolei hated being locked in a cage and grabbed the bars, receiving a nasty shock in the process. "Yolei!" cried Hawkmon.

"They're electrically energized." cried Cody.

"Well that's dandy." said Armadilamon "How do we get out then?"

Suddenly, they could all hear the sounds of snickering "What's your rush? This show's just gettin' started."

TK felt a chill run down his spine. "That voice. It can't be?!" That's when stage lights on the ceiling lit up and cast their captor into the light. "…Etemon?"

"Close, but no cigar. I'm Metal-Etemon." He was a Mega level "Thank you very much!"

TK and Patamon remembered their old enemy. Kari had never run across Edemon before, nor had the others, but they heard the stories from Tai and the gang about him and the Dark Network. "That ol' life of mine is history." Etemon said "Ever since I was reconfigured after my last run in with your other friends, I struggled for ages tryin' to get my power back, but I realized even if I did, y'all would just come and ice me again. Well, now we're playin' a different song."

He explained how he discovered about the Experience Point System, and how Digimon could get stronger without always having to Digivolve. Only he decided do both, but rather than do it the honest way, he preferred quick and easy, and began using his newly created black cables he cursed to suck the experience points from his opponents by electrical currents, and then he could transfer add them to his own power, even just now he took some experience from the others' Digimon, making them even weaker than they previously were. Even if they were to get out and Digivolve they wouldn't stand a chance to have a chance to even get a chance against him now.

"Yes, sir-ee-bob…" he chuckled "Pretty soon the whole Digi-World'll singin' to a different tune of the Digimon King, yours truly of course." He chuckled and laughed wickedly.

"You're plan will never work, Metal-Etemon!" snapped Kari. "Someone will come and help us."

"Oh-me, oh-my…! Someone'll come and help ya, what'll I do?! What'll I do?!" he was obviously being sarcastic. "Let me put it this way honey…" he picked up a very solid boulder and held it over his head "Anyone who may be smart enough to even find you, which they won't, will have to deal with me, and when they do…" he crunched the boulder into pebbles in one swift crush "…I'm gonna bring down the house."

The others were very worried.

…

Davis began to stir and still felt injured, and his head felt cold but the rest of him felt warm. He groaned softly, but he opened his eyes to see a roof over his head revealing he was in a little cottage, in bed, with a cold cloth on his head. He turned his head to the side to see a small pack of Floramon gazing at him. "He's waking up!" one of them chirped.

"Where am I?" Davis groaned as he tried to sit up, when suddenly a long green hand a female Sunflowmon stopped him. "Just relax." she said in a soothing voice.

Davis lay back softly and asked "What happened?"

"We found you and your friend unconscious out in the fields by our home. You both looked as if you had been through a lot."

"Mama, can I replace his cloth?" asked a Floramon.

Sunflowmon nodded and a new freshly dampened cloth was placed over Davis' head. He sighed happily, but he still felt injured. "Where's Veemon?" he asked.

"Down here, Davish." Veemon groaned softly. He was at the end of the bed, sleeping in a basket, and the other Floramon softly treated his injuries. Davis and Veemon finally remembered passing out after their long fight with TK and Patamon. Sunflowmon and her three adopted Floramon daughters nursed them back to health.

Two of the Floramon mixed the boys some special herbal tea to help stop the pain. It tasted rather bitter, but Davis and Veemon drank both their cups dry, and it worked they felt their strengths returning.

The Floramon and Sunflowmon prepared some decent food for the boys; vegetable soup fruit and bread, and though Davis was not the kind to have a green thumb for veggies, he was starving and wasn't about to refuse the ladies for helping him and Veemon. Not a morsel was left by the time they finished. Davis couldn't remember the last time he felt so relaxed and so safe too, knowing he wouldn't run into the others here.

Sunflowmon explained how she loved to take care of the meadows. She adopted her three daughters after she found them wandering along with no home, no family, and no place to go. They all lived happily together, taking care of the place, and helping wandering strangers in need "…But lately, something very mysterious has been going on. We've been coming across many hurt and weakened Digimon, and strangely they all were found in the meadow and all seemed to have suffered from the same ailment."

Davis and Veemon gazed at each other with concern "What exactly is it?" Veemon asked.

"We don't know." said one of the Floramon "But there's something defiantly out there. We've been trying to find out what it is, but Mama says it's not safe for us to go out there."

This made Davis and Veemon worry; the others were still out there. What if they ran into this danger, unless they ran into it already?

Just then there was a knock at the cottage door. One of the Floramon answered it was surprise to see an Angewomon. "Wow! I've always wanted to meet one." she chirped with glee.

Davis and Veemon felt their stomachs starting to churn again at the sight of her, and Angewomon could see them right as she was about to ask the others if they had seen him. "Davis, Veemon… thank goodness I found you." but the boys didn't look all thrilled to see her and looked away from her and didn't say a thing.

The others felt confused, but Angewomon came right into the house and just let it out "The others have been kidnapped."

Davis and Veemon winced in concern. "Kidnapped?" Davis asked. Angewomon and told them everything about the black cables ensnaring everyone and how she was barely able to escape. "Who did thish?" asked Veemon.

"I don't know who it was, I couldn't see through the dark." replied Angewomon "But we've got to save the others."

Davis couldn't believe this "Once again, it's old Davis to the rescue." He said sarcastically "When others can't bail themselves out, I have to be there to do it all just so I can get kicked in the face later."

"Davis, please!" snapped Angewomon "I can't do this by myself; I really need your help, and so do the others."

Veemon stepped forward "Are these the shame othersh, and you who've been horrid and mean to Davish? Not that his actions have been exactly right either."

Angewomon clenched her fists in frustration. "Forget it. Maybe I shouldn't have tried you two first." and she turned sadly and began to walk towards the door. However, Davis, unable to believe he was doing what he was about to do "Wait…!" he suddenly said. Angewomon turned around. "Tell me more." Veemon nodded in agreement. Angewomon didn't know what to say.

After discussing what was going on. Davis and Veemon realized they were all going to need a lot more help from Tai and the others. Sunflowmon and her daughters agreed to help out too, for they had lots of friends from around the meadow.

By dawn, the plan was ready to be set into motion. Davis, Angewomon and Veemon quietly crept back to the hill where it all happened, unaware the Metal-Etemon was watching them form a TV monitor in his cave. "Well, well, well, party crashers at dawn, eh?"

Kari saw Angewomon and the others, and Metal-Etemon got up from his chair with a handful of his dark cables. "Come on babies, we got ourselves a show to put on." It didn't take much for the others to realize what he was going to do. He turned back to face the others "Don'cha y'all worry now, the king'll be right back to play your final number." then he left.

"We've got to get out of here somehow." said TK.

"It's your fault we're here to begin with." growled Ken "If you hadn't gone after Davis and Veemon this could've been avoided."

"Look, let's not get into this now!" TK snarled.

"He's right, TK." snarled Yolei "Now I finally see- Davis may not have been acting cool lately but the rest of us haven't been any better, especially you. It's no wonder he beat you and Matt up."

Cody nodded in agreement, and all three of their Digimon agreed. "You have acted very shamefully Patamon, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself." sneered Hawkmon.

"Hey!" snapped Patamon "Veemon challenged me, and shot me. What choice did I have?"

"Ever think of maybe sayin' no and quit insultin' Davis?" said Armadilamon.

Wormon just turned away and scoffed "I have nothing to say to you."

TK and Patamon couldn't believe the others, and they turned to face Kari, who sat in her cell alone and she felt just the same "Come on, Kari!"

"No, TK! I can't take it anymore." She sounded more near tears than angry. "I just can't take any more of this anger, this hatred. Can't you see how none of us are making things any better, and then you just go in there and make everything even worse?!"

"But I… he… you…" TK tried to find words to protest, but he ultimately starting to realize they were all right, and when he had flashbacks of all the way he acted at Davis, preferably flirting with Kari just to make him upset, and then right up to fighting with him just the other night "What have I done?!"

"What have WE done?" Patamon corrected "It was my fault too."

Now Davis and the others were bound to get caught by Metal-Etemon, and if he tapped into and stole any of Veemon's super high experience, they didn't even want to begin thinking how dangerous that would be.

"If I might incline…" said Hawkmon "How are we supposed to do a thing about it? We can't get out of these cages."

"Even if we could, that metallic-monkey took some of our own experience points." added Armadiliamon "He'll crush us like peeled grapes."

This worried the others, especially Kari. Davis and the others still weren't aware of what was going on and were now about to fall into the same trap.

…

Outside, Davis and Veemon rode on Angewomon's back. "You sure that's the tree?" Davis asked.

"I'm positive. Just pull on the big branch right there, but I still don't think you can get anywhere near there."

Davis was aware that the black cables were probably set to grab anything or anyone that tried to come near them, and they couldn't be broken. "I've got an idea, but it's risky but it may draw out whoever's here."

He told Angewomon to fire a shot directly at the tree leaves. She agreed and fired her Celestial-Arrow straight in the brambles, and they could all hear it contact with metal and explode softly followed by a great big "YEOW…!" and then they saw him fall out of the tree. "Oh, Mama…!"

"Hey, who's that?" asked Veemon.

"It's a Metal-Etemon!" cried Angewomon. Davis' features stiffened, he had heard the stories and knew this guy was nothing but bad news. "Where are the others?!" he shouted down.

Metal-Etemon, not hurt at all, picked himself up and snickered "You wanna see your little gaggle 'o groupies?" he asked in a mocking tone "Well, let me take ya to em!" he clapped his huge metal hands summoning his black cables, that burst up from the ground and began to sling right at them. "LOOK OUT!" cried Davis, and Angewomon soared higher dodging them.

Metal-Etemon chuckled and hollered, "…Not this time ya don't! **_FART ATTACK!" _**and he stuck his rear in the air and let out a huge blast of stinky gas into the sky right at the others. They all gagged and Davis held his nose "I even never stink this much!"

With Angewomon now horribly distracted with the smell. Metal-Etemon saw his chance "Now for the encore, a little number I call **_DARK SPIRITS DELUXE!" _**This summoned bolts of lightning made from negative energy to strike all around the gang, and Angewomon got hit, and she began to fall. "Mayday…! Mayday…!" shouted Davis.

Metal-Etemon laughed hard. "Now that's a hit record, baby." and he sent his cables to go after them. "Hurry, you guys get off me!" cried Angewomon. "No, we're not going to leave you!" shouted Veemon, but the cables got closer. "Get GOING…!" shouted Angewomon as she flicked them off of her just as the cables ensnared her, and shocked her badly taking her experience points and changing her into Salamon.

"No!" cried Veemon as he and Davis continued to fall.

"Quick, Veemon!" shouted Davis and Veemon quickly Digivolved into Ex-Veemon and scooped Davis up before he hit the ground "Whoa, that was way to close!"

Poor little Salamon crashed hard on the grassy fields, while Metal-Etemon absorbed more experience points from her and his metal muscles seemed to expand immensely with that extra boost. "Oh yeah! Rock 'n Roll!" he kissed both his metal biceps and they shimmered in the light of the dawn. Then he turned and gazed up at Davis and Ex-Veemon. "I don't like the look in his eyes, Davis." They both knew this time Ex-Veemon wouldn't stand a chance. "Try it anyway." Davis suggested.

"Well, okay! **_VEE-LASER!" _**His shot hit Metal-Etemon full force, but just as they expected, it did squat! "So, looks like I got me a tough crowd. I'm afraid this show's over for you two." And he sent the cables after them.

"Watch it!" shouted Davis. Ex-Veemon swerved and dodged. More cables came at them and he continued to dodge, but he didn't dare fly too high at the risk of getting hit by lightning again. "You can't keep that up forever." hollered Metal-Etemon, and he forced more cables at them.

As they continued to dodge, Davis got an idea how to stop the cables and told Ex-Veemon where to fly and swerve, and by doing so, they managed to outmaneuver the cables getting them all tangled up with one another and shocking their own selves. "Hey! You can't do that to my cables!" snapped Metal-Etemon.

"I think we just DID!" snarled Ex-Veemon.

All the cables were down and tangled, but Metal-Etemon decided to get them both himself. "Oh, boy…" cried Davis.

"That goes double for me!" added Ex-Veemon.

Metal-Etemon snickered and stood tall and proud as if he were on a lit up stage with a cheering crowd "So glad y'all could join me. Sit back, it's ShowTime! **_HEAVY-MON KICK!" _**and he leapt over with his foot kicking hard.

"Dodge it Ex-Veemon!" shouted Davis and they both sped out of the way causing the kick to miss, but Metal-Etemon just leapt again, and again. Davis leapt off of Ex-Veemon so he could dodge easier, and maybe make his way to the tree to use the secret passage into the cave where the others were being held.

Davis ran to tree. "Oh, no you don't!" sneered Metal-Etemon **_"BANANA SLIP!"_** He launched several slippery banana peels along Davis' path which actually slipped on.

"No, Davis!" cried Ex-Veemon.

Metal-Etemon then leapt right over and stood before him. Davis looked up at the sinister grinning ape. "Goin' somewhere, little man?"

Davis quivered and tried to get up and run, but Metal-Etemon leapt in his way again, and again. Ex-Veemon tried to help him, but Metal-Etemon quickly turned and gave him a huge taste of his **_"METAL PUNCH!"_** hitting him really hard and sending him skidding hard along the ground.

"Ex-Veemon…!"

"Uhn… that… really hurt…!"

Metal-Etemon laughed and he picked up another black cable and stepped towards Davis as he inches away from him, right back into the tree. "Nowhere to run now, sucker…" Metal-Etemon said with a smirk he cracked the cable in his hands "You wanted be with your friends, and big daddy Metal-Etemon's gonna let you have 'em."

"No… Davis…!" cried Ex-Veemon as he struggled to get up, but he flopped back down again. Metal-Etemon was now directly before Davis with the cable in his hands ready to ensnare him. "Time for the final curtain." he chuckled, but just as he was about to ensnare Davis, Salamon leapt onto his face right over his eyes biting and clawing. "Leave him alone!" she growled.

Of course being Mega against a Rookie, Metal-Etemon felt nothing, but he did buck, leap, and swing about trying shark her off of his face, finally throwing her hard onto the ground. "Salamon!" cried Ex-Veemon.

…

Down in their cages, the gang could see everything on the monitor. "Salamon!" screamed Kari "No… Salamon!" she ran straight at the bars of her cage and got shocked and thrown back hard.

"Kari!" cried TK.

Kari was a little scorched form the shock, but was so feared for her little friend. "She going to get destroyed!" she cried with tears coming to her eyes.

The others felt as worried as she was, and there was no way Davis and Ex-Veemon could stop it!

…

"Say goodbye…!" shouted Metal-Etemon as he swung his fist back ready to strike, when suddenly Salamon was swiped away casing him to miss. "Huh…?" He looked up and saw Salamon had been grabbed by Garudamon, and then Wargreymon and Metal-Garurumon attacked, actually knocking him a little ways back. "Hello, Metal-Etemon." sneered Wargreymon

"Long time, no stupid." added Metal-Garurumon. Then they were joined by all the others and their fully evolved Digimon. Even Matt was there, still with a bandage around his head. They all were very surprised to see it was their old foe again. "Well, well…" Metal-Etemon said "And here I was wonderin' lure you cats in, and ya deliver yourselves."

Zudomon ponded his hammer into his hand "You bet, and we got a special delivery for you; a one way ticket to the back alley."

The others all agreed, and Tai told Davis to go get the others. "We'll stay here and hold him off as long as we can."

Davis nodded and turned back to face the tree.

"Oh, no ya don't!" shouted Metal-Etemon.

"Oh, yes he does!" growled Metal-Garurumon as he dashed over and shoved Metal-Etemon off the hill, hurting himself in the process. "Man, talk about a headache."

"Be careful!" cried Izzy "Remember, he's got a ton of experience points."

Everyone kept that in mind, and at best decided to split their assault and attack him form many directions from safe distances. While they all did this, Davis pulled on the big branch which teleported him inside to the cavern beneath the hill.

For a secret lair, it really wasn't very impressive, or big or even guarded. He found the main chamber easily. "Guys…!"

"Davis!" they all cried for joy, and he ran up to Kari's cage. "No, wait…!" she cried but he already got shocked and bounced back. "Whoa-ho-haow…!"

"Are you okay?" cried Ken. Davis was fine, but he couldn't see how to get them all out at first, but the others were impressed that Tai and his gang were up there "How did they know to come?" asked Yolei.

"It was my idea." Davis answered, not too sharply. "But never mind, I got to get you guys out of here."

"But Davis, why are you doing this?" asked Cody.

"I said never mind!" he snapped "Look, maybe I'm still mad at you guys, but I'm not going to let this happen to you."

The others were starting to feel their anger returning, but remembering not to blow it, they said nothing, and Davis got an idea when he saw the cables that were lying on the ground and they were plugged into the huge generator. "Get away from the bars." Davis said as he picked up the cables.

"What are you doing?" asked TK.

"Something you couldn't… I'm saving you guys, again!" Davis sneered as he tossed the electrically-charged cables at the electric-charged bars of the steel cages overloading the voltage in a small blow out, melting the bars clean off.

Everyone slipped out and felt relieved to be freed. They all gazed at Davis thankfully not knowing what to say, but Davis wasn't interested much in their thanks. "We've got to get back up there and help the others." he said.

"Davis wait!" cried Kari "We can't fight them."

"He took our Digimon's experience." added TK. All the others and even the Digimon agreed that even though they could Digivolve, they wouldn't stand a chance against Metal-Etemon. "Ugh…!" growled Davis and he scorned "Will you guys, for once in your life just listen to me? We're not backing out this time; we're going to fight, all of us." And he ran back to the Teleporter pad and warped back outside, and much as it was absolutely killing the others to admit it, Davis was right. This was a fight to the finish, Experience or no Experience.

The fate of the entire Digital World depended on it, so they all Digivolved to their champion levels and warped to the top for the real battle to begin.


	7. How does it end

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

With the two gangs all together, Metal-Etemon didn't know whether to feel lucky that he had more suckers to trounce, or outraged that his prisoners escaped. "Well, I'll tell one thing I do feel, and that's sorry for the lot of ya. Even all together y'all don't stand a chance."

"We'll see about that, Metal-Etemon." Davis snarled. Everyone on the team agreed and the battle continued. Attacks were fired straight at Metal-Etemon, but he just stood there and took them all like they hardly tickled, which they didn't. "I've got so much experience, I could go on forever." he chuckled.

Several of the Digimon charged him on foot. **_"BANANA SLIP…!"_** and they all got tripped up by the peels.

**_"VULCAN'S HAMMER!" _**Zudomon smashed the ground hard with his hammer causing a small tremor that actually made Metal-Etemon lose his footing and fall. "Oh, baby… stick it together." He kept telling himself.

**_"GARURU TAMOHAWK!"_**

**_"TERRA FORCE!"_**

The two Mega Digimon attacks were about the only things could really cause any real damage; hitting him full force, sparks and small explosions went flying and he rolled down the slope, but even still after a long and very forceful battle they were starting to feel tired, while Metal-Etemon still had power to burn thanks to his experience.

"We're losing our advantage!" cried Stingmon.

Ex-Veemon turned to gaze at him, and then to Ken and Davis. "Davis, please…!" Ken said. Davis clutched his D3 tight, and agreed "Do it now!" and both he and Ken activated their D3's

_"Ex-Veemon…!"_

_"Stingmon…!"_

_"…DNA DIGIVOLVE TOO… **PAILDRAMON!"**_

Paildramon landed on the ground _"Gosh!" _they said _"I suddenly feel strong enough to lift up the moon!"_

Izzy quickly calculated it was obviously Ex-Veemon's high experience added with Stingmon's boosting the power even higher "But we're going to need more. Make them Digivolve again."

"Right…!" Davis and Ken shouted, and activated the Mega Digivolution turning Paildramon into Imperaldramon Dragon-Mode, and then mode changed him to Fighter-mode!

_"Time to kick it…!"_

Imperialdramon stomped down by Metal-Etemon and punched him hard, dealing him a bigger blow than the others. "Hoo-wee… what a right hook." cried Metal-Etemon "Let's make it fist-to-fist." And he began to swing his own fists to counter all the other attacks waged at him, eventually socking Imperaldramon hard in the stomach, only to then get kicked right back, only Imperialdramon suffered more damage than he did. "Guess it's true, you ain't nothin' but an ol' hound dog who can't be taught."

Davis clenched his fists angrily. Metal-Etemon was really starting to bug him, but the fight continued and all the other Digimon did their best to keep fighting, giving Imperialdramon the chance to strike back. **_"POSITRON LASER!"_**

Metal-Etemon leapt up high, evading the shot. **_"HEAVY-MON KICK!"_** and kicked his foe hard sending him way up high in the air. **_"DARK SPIRITS DELUXE!"_**

"Watch out!" cried Davis, but Imperialdramon got hit by the lightning, and crashed down hard. _"This isn't working!"_ they groaned.

"He's too strong!" growled Tai.

"There's got to be a way to bring this ape down!" added Matt.

Metal-Etemon snickered and hissed "Oh there's a way, just throw in the towel."

"Never!" growled TK.

"We'll never give into you!"

Metal-Etemon adjusted his shades. "I wasn't givin' ya a choice." He clapped his metal hands again, and more black cables, including the ones already downed, rose back up high and began to pursue all the Digimon again.

"Watch out!" cried Mega-Kabuterimon, but he was the first one to be grabbed, and had his experience points stolen. Izzy fell off of him, but he was caught by Sora and Garudamon. Izzy was fine, but horrified to see his partner get shocked and then turned back into poor little Tentomon lying flat in the grass.

"Tentomon…!"

"I'm fine, just one question; who's Tentomon?"

"Look at Metal-Etemon!" cried Lilymon. "He's absorbing more experience!" added Mimi. Metal-Etemon was getting so strong, that was actually starting to expand inside making him slightly bigger than what he was before, and his voice sounded deeper. "Yeah… I have the power…!"

He stomped his foot created small tremors and wind waves that actually blew everyone backwards, and the cables were still going about. "Watch out!" cried Joe

Zudomon swung his hammer hard and Ankylomon swung his tail, smashing any cables that came their way to the ground hard, and Lilymon blasted them down, but the cables came right back up in almost a split second later. "This isn't working!" she cried.

"We have to find some way to put them out of action." added Aquilamon, but he was suddenly ensnared, right before Yolei's eyes. "Aquilamon…!" Her poor partner was drained of power and changed back into Hawkmon, while Metal-Etemon got more experience and expanded yet again, and the cables grabbed most of the others too, leaving only thee three Mega Digimon still standing.

Metal-Etemon had never such power before. "I told y'all were through, and now it's time for you there to face the music!"

"Don't let him get you!" hollered Tai.

"There's got to be a way for us to get at this creep!" added Matt.

The three Digimon launched all their attacks at once, but hardly damaged him at all now thanks to his newly stolen strength. "My turn…! **_METAL-PUNCH!"_** All three of them got hit really hard, cracking and damaging the metal of their armors. "I can't… go on… much longer!" groaned Wargreymon.

"Me neither…" added Metal-Garurumon.

_"If only we could boost up our own experience and be equal to him."_ said Imperialdramon

Hearing that suddenly gave Davis an idea. "Hey, the cables!" he shouted "If they can steal our experiences maybe they can steal his too."

Izzy quickly did his calculations, and found it was possible for them to try, but Metal-Etemon chuckled "More like impossible. I control these babies, and they'd never attack little ol' Me." and he sent the cables after the Megas. They dodged it and realized maybe the best way to trick the cables into getting them to snatch Metal-Etemon by faking them out, which was easier, said that done. Metal-Etemon dodged their every single attempt. "Missed me…!"

"I'm over here."

"Oh, so close!"

The others were growing really annoyed, and Metal-Etemon even found the openings to punch and kick two of the Mega's hard, and they both changed into their Rookie forms, leaving only Imperialdramon left. The cables went right for them, but Tai and Matt quickly jumped out and scooped up Agumon and Gabumon just missing the cables themselves, but skidding across the ground. Sora and Mimi dashed over to help them up. "You guys okay?" asked Sora.

"We're fine." Tai answered.

"…But you be for long." Metal-Etemon sneered and he sent more of the cables at Imperialdramon, and they grabbed them tight in their claws like struggling with five strong snakes. "Come on Imperialdramon, fight them off!" cried Ken.

_"What do you think I'm trying to do?!"_ Imperialdramon growled while struggling to keep the cables from reaching them. Metal-Etemon stomped his way towards them, actually looking down on them like the giant he was to them, and he raised his huge foot to squash them. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, the final curtain…"

Everyone expressed cries of worry. Some of the girls couldn't bear to look, but Davis and Ken were the most worried and cried out for their friend, when suddenly… Metal-Etemon got blasted at from the side by so many different attacks all at once. "Hey! What the-" he turned and could see Sunflowmon, her three Floramon daughters and so many different Digimon he recognized as the many Digimon, Rookie, Champion, and a few Ultimates, all whom he stole points from, all gathered as in a huge army.

"You stole my experience points!"

"You hit me while I wasn't looking!"

"You're going to be sorry punk!"

The gang was amazed "Where did they all come from?" asked TK "And how did they know where to find us?" added Kari. Salamon opened her eyes "It was Davis' idea. He knew we'd need all the help we could get."

TK and Kari gazed over at Davis, almost shocked to believe he actually sat down and thought it over for once, and it did explain why he acted so confident for most of the fight.

"Get him!" Davis shouted!" and his Digimon posse continued to fire at Metal-Etemon, who leapt back hard and stuck out his arms like a shield blocking the attacks. He couldn't feel much anyway, but all those attacks made it really hard for him to focus. "Ya rotten party crashers! I stole your points fair and square. Y'all keep this up and I'll take away more than that!" he warned them.

"This is our chance!" Davis hollered at Imperialdramon. Imperaildramon nodded and, with Metal-Etemon distracted he couldn't control the cables with so much force, they were able to rise up without much struggle and zoomed straight at him. Metal-Etemon saw them and punched them away. They tried again and he kicked them back. "Sorry suckers but thems the breaks, just like this; **_DARK SPIRITS DELUXE!"_**

Dark lightning began to strike all around. The posse was forced to cease firing and scatter to avoid being hit, and since Metal-Etemon had grown bigger and stronger, his attack stretched farther and could strike many more times without him actually calling it, and with the posse now distracted, he once against put full control into the cables, forcing Imperialdramon into another struggle.

"No!" cried TK "I can't believe this."

"It seems like every time we get an advantage we just lose it all over again." added Cody.

Davis felt his outrage returning, and clenched his fists tight and snarled "No! No, I'm not going to let this happen!" and, unsure if he was even thinking at all, he ran right towards the giant Digimon!

"Davis!" screamed Yolei.

"What are you doing? Get back here!" shouted Tai.

"DAVIS!" screamed Kari.

"Are you crazy?!" shouted TK.

Davis ignored everyone's cries and protests and continued to run straight at Metal-Etemon, just as he was about to finish Imperialdramon off. "Hey, you overgrown gorilla!"

Metal-Etemon turned round "You talkin' to me, half-pint?"

"Yeah I'm talking to you, banana breath!"

"DAVIS, DON'T!" Kari screamed, but Davis stood his ground. His insides were actually trembling with fear, yet his facial features never showed more fierceness. "My Digimon may all be down, but I'm not!"

Metal-Etemon stomped towards Davis "You got nerves, kid." He said "…but your biggest boo-boo was shootin' your mouth off at someone who can crush ya like a grape!" he raised his huge hands ready to smash Davis, when he rolled out of the way forcing him to drive his huge metal fists so deep into the ground, he couldn't seem to pull himself up. "What the?! Hey…!" he growled as he struggled to pull himself up.

"Your biggest boo-boo was challenging a dude who's got a lot of hate in him." Davis sneered, and then he heard the thunder above. "…And using electricity when you're covered with metal!" He quickly ran out of the way just as Metal-Etemon got struck by his own lightning attack, severely damaging him.

The others stared it out most amazement unable to believe what Davis had just done, but Metal-Etemon was outraged and began to tug and pull very hard, but the posse of Digimon began to fire at him again keeping his distracted, especially seeing as he couldn't block the shots.

Now that he was permanently stuck and not controlling the cables very well, Imperialdramon found their opening. "Get him!" Davis shouted and before Metal-Etemon knew it, he was wrapped tightly in his own black cables. _"Sorry to see you all tied up."_ They mocked and then sped away as the lightning struck Metal-Etemon again. The shock triggered his cables to activate and shocking him horribly, bouncing the experience back and forth in a continuously a fatal cycle.

_"This is our chance!"_ shouted Imperialdramon _"Everyone, attack him all at once!"_

The entire army of Digimon unleashed their full force of attacks on him; even the gang's Digimon blasted him from afar with their projectile attacks, and finally Imperialdramon attacked **_"POSITRON LASER!"_** Metal-Etemon screeched in horror as the blast headed straight for him. "NO…! BUT I'M THE KING OF DIGIMON!"

"HIT THE DIRT!" Davis shouted, and everyone slammed down on the ground just as Metal-Etemon exploded and was blown into data-bytes. With his downfall, since everyone helped to destroy him, they all gained massive amounts of all the experience he had stolen.

"WE DID IT!" shouted Tai.

"WE BEAT HIM!" added Matt, and soon the whole field echoed with cheering and jumping for joy as the morning sun finally lifted the darkness away. The only one who was still silent was Davis, but he smiled bravely.

Imperialdramon split back up into Veemon and Wormon. Ken dashed over and hugged Wormon and spun him around as they both cried for joy along with the others, but Veemon just gazed over at Davis and they both gave each other a big thumb-up.

All the Digimon were very happy to have their lost experience points regained, but this also meant they would all have to keep their guards up from this point on. Now that the experience point system would be well known, not everyone would be using it for good like Metal-Etemon, or others just being bullies. Many of the Digimon in the posse agreed to train to boost their points up and set a little police patrol to keep watch for trouble, and many of the Digi-Destined offered to help out whenever they could.

With all that settled, all the Digimon decided to head on out. Sunflowmon and the Floramon thanked everyone for helping them rid their meadow of the evil, especially to Davis who came up with all the ideas.

The gang especially thanked Davis, and felt it was time to ultimately apologize to him for the way they were acting. "I'm sorry especially, Davis." Kari said "I know I haven't exactly been a good friend lately, but I really don't want us all to hate each other anymore. Please… can we just put this behind us?"

Now came the hard part Davis was dreading. "Kari… I really want to accept it, but… I just can't."

Looks of shock came to everyone's faces. "But Davis…"

"I know you guys are sorry, and I know this may sound selfish of me, but… what good is it really going to do me?" He was referred to the fact that he still no longer had his Digi-Egg of friendship and would probably never be able to find it. Plus, he was planning to go back to the real world and answer to all his wrongs and face his family again, but he knew this wasn't exactly going to make things better. "I was glad I could help out, but this has nothing to do with my decision." he lied about that "I really don't think we should all be hanging out anymore. I still have a lot of hate left in me, and I really don't want to take the chance this time and make things worse." He didn't say that he still had feelings for Kari deep down and always would, but she was happy with TK and it still would hurt him know she didn't have the same feelings for him… but everyone could pretty much see that without him actually saying.

Kari felt tears coming to her eyes.

The others felt low and some felt disappointed in Davis. Tai said "I can't believe you, Davis. We all apologized to you and want to make things right, and you do this."

Davis turned and spoke calmly to him "Tai… if you were in my shoes what would you do? What would you think is best for everyone?"

Tai couldn't answer that. He really couldn't find the words.

"I just really need some time alone. I don't know how long, but I just don't think we should hang out much for now."

No one said a thing, not even Veemon, but he understood how Davis felt and wasn't going to pressure him this time. After all that had happened he finally learned that some people could get better from these kinds of troubles, but some people couldn't. Whatever happened in the near future would be up to Davis and the rest of the gang. "Are you going to be okay, Davish?" he finally asked.

Davis gazed down at what he considered his only real friend now. "…I just don't know." Then he walked to the TV-Portal and warped back home. Kari just stood where she was clenching her fists and biting her lips trying not to cry. So did Yolei, but Ken felt the most upset yet all he could do was hope that someday his friend would see the light and come back.

"Let's go home." TK said softly. The others all agreed.

…

When Davis returned home, his mother and his sister did feel rather strange having him home again. His father was still not permitted to come home for having starting the fight with Davis, and the police did come to hear his side of the story of what happened, and he was let off easy for fighting in self-defence. As for his fights in the Digital-World, hurting Matt and TK, they couldn't do much about that as it was outside of their derestriction. So Davis was okay, and eventually his father came home, but the family had really fallen into dark times and were almost too ashamed to even look at or talk to one another and merely restricted speaking to "Yes" and "No" questions.

He went back to school, but received extra homework and detention for skipping, but… people whom he passed couldn't help but look at him like he was Frankenstein, having heard how he beat up his family, and TK and Matt. Many got the message now not to mess with him, and sad to say this didn't help Davis one bit to get better, nor the gang.

Kari was so upset about what happened that she and TK… they were taking a break, a good long break until Kari could sort out her feelings, but it wouldn't be easy seeing as she constantly kept blaming herself for what happened.

The gang still hung out, without Davis and Veemon and kept up the Digital-Patrols to watch out for any troublemakers, and the gang's Digimon began to train excessively to help raise their experience points.

They still saw Davis and Veemon now and then, but it was the same old "Yes" or "No" treatment, neither side wanting to really take a chance, and Davis still not willing to try again in fear, shame, and upset of it all.

The gang all felt pretty much dead inside, and didn't know if ever there would be a day when all this would be over and they could all be friends again. That's just sometimes how it ends.

**_Author's notes:_**

**_I believe this cliff-hanger ending will do us good. This way I don't have to kill Davis for not getting Kari._**

**_-Before you all review, I have a message for all of you, but it's too big to put here, so visit my homepage and scroll all the way down to Jan 07, 2014._**


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